Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-14-Speech-4-042"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to start by congratulating you, Mrs Langenhagen, as rapporteur, and the Committee on Fisheries for this own initiative report. Like the European Parliament, the Commission also sees the European fish-processing industry as an important sector of the economy. This sector of the economy supplies quality fish products and creates jobs, especially in regions which depend on fisheries, and we are well aware of the challenges which it has to cope with.
There are four main problem areas. First, the inadequate supply of raw materials from EU waters, secondly, import restrictions on raw materials, thirdly, strict health, hygiene and environmental standards in the EU compared with third countries and, fourthly, increasing international competition.
Now to the individual points in your report. You complain that we have forgotten this industry in our Green Paper. May I remind you that it is addressed in our structural policy, especially in items 4 to 7, 14 and 22 and have already supported measures to modernise the European fish-processing industry. The structural fund for fisheries has earmarked EUR 637 million for this purpose for the period from 2000 to 2006.
I wholeheartedly agree, however, that we need the results of the study into the impact of structural funds on the sector as quickly as possible. This study will be available in time for the interim review of the structural fund period in 2003.
Now to the supply situation. I fully agree that we need to develop our supply policy. In the final analysis, it is the competitiveness of our own processing industry which is at stake. We shall submit a proposal along these lines before the end of this year. I expressly welcome your call for the liberalisation of port services in the EU to be harmonised to promote fair competition in the processing industry. The Commission submitted a proposal for a directive on this in May last year.
On the question of health, hygiene and consumer protection inside and outside the Community, I should like to remind you that the relevant provisions of Community law obviously also apply to imports from third countries and we have a comprehensive inspection programme in place in the Member States and third countries in order to ensure that this is the case. We want to improve these controls still further and the relevant provisions are being revised as we speak. In addition, the European Food Safety Agency will provide us with substantiated scientific opinions on food and animal food safety in future.
Another question closely related to that of consumer protection is labelling, which was set on a new legal basis in last year's new regulation and which also applies to a whole range of processed products, including smoked, dried and frozen fish.
As far as preparations for enlargement are concerned, the SAPARD and PHARE programmes include measures to ensure that candidate countries quickly come up to our standards in fisheries.
Finally, I should like to point out that the new common organisation of the market makes greater provision for cross-sectoral producer organisations which allow the various industries in the fisheries sector, from fishing to processing and sales, to make use of their common synergy potential, for example, by adapting products to market requirements, improving product quality, developing quality labels or environmentally-friendly production methods and so on. So you see, we have already addressed certain aspects of your initiative, although much still remains to be done and you may be sure that we shall put your proposals into practice as best we can."@en1
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