Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-18-Speech-1-115"
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"en.20021118.7.1-115"2
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".
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as deadlines draw near that are decisive for the future of the CFP – leading to its objectives, terms and conditions being redefined – I feel it is crucial that Parliament firmly reiterates the five principles which served as the main theme of my report and which the Committee on Fisheries wanted to highlight with a view to fully integrating environmental protection requirements into the new common fisheries policy.
I am pleased to have been broadly supported by the Committee on Fisheries, which retained all of these positive and constructive proposals, thus rejecting the very negative vision of fishery activities, which strongly permeated the Commission communication. I hope that Parliament, by voting overwhelmingly in favour of this report, will make it clear to all that the protection of the marine environment will be achieved by working with the fishermen rather than against them. That is why, instead of adopting accusatory positions, instead of speaking constantly about an industry in decline and of a makeshift policy, the Committee on Fisheries preferred to send a message of confidence and hope to those working in the industry to consolidate their growing respect for the quality of the marine environment, a quality that is one of the crucial objectives that the new common fisheries policy is bound by duty to pursue.
The first principle is that nothing will be done without the fishermen. Those working in the fisheries sector are the first to be concerned about the protection of the marine environment and the first to be aware of the need to safeguard it. They are also the first victims of any impairment of the environment as shown unfortunately by the latest oil spill, which has today caused despair amongst the fishermen of Galicia. Three years after the
disaster, which struck the Vendée region and Brittany, it should not have been possible for the
an out-dated, dilapidated vessel, to be allowed to sail Community waters. Our report stresses the need to implement swiftly and comprehensively the packages of directives specifically named Erika I and Erika II.
We refuse to consider fishermen to be predators, to which they are occasionally likened – I might add, wrongly so. On the contrary, this committee grants fishermen the status of wholly legitimate players in environmental protection and stresses that any measures taken without their backing are more than likely to be inappropriate and ineffective.
The second principle is that we should base decisions regarding the management of fish stocks on scientific knowledge that is as sound and accurate as possible. The economic and social consequences of these decisions are so great that they cannot be taken lightly.
That is why I welcome the fact that the Committee on Fisheries has retained the request to instruct the Commission to draw up a precise action plan with a view to improving the current but very inadequate system of stock evaluation by integrating into it the practical, empirical and pragmatic knowledge of fishermen, as well as checks on landings and by placing the interdisciplinary nature of biological and socio-economic sciences at the very heart of the process of formulating scientific opinions.
The third principle proposes to retain flexible, reversible management instruments such as TACs and quotas, so that the fishing effort can be adjusted to match the state of resources, in preference to rigid instruments that have an irreversible and socially dramatic impact such as the scrapping of vessels.
The fourth principle calls for fishing gear and techniques to be improved with a view to reducing discards, by-catches and the impact on habitats.
Of course, such measures cannot be adopted in a uniform and centralised manner but must leave enough scope for initiatives from professionals working in the sector. Fishermen, their professional organisations and coastal communities must be given a right to experiment. Initiatives in this area must be recognised and encouraged. This is how very promising experiments on the Atlantic coast came about. I shall mention, by way of example, those experiments aiming to adapt fishing vessels and gear so that they may be used to collect marine debris or oil spills or even the creation of artificial reefs to facilitate the development of breeding or rest areas for maritime fauna, or even artificial fertilisation techniques in the open sea for sea bass. My report proposes that such experiments should be eligible for state funding.
The fifth and final principle states that state aid for fleet modernisation, the aim of which is to improve working conditions, on-board safety, energy savings and the quality of fisheries products, is perfectly compatible with the protection of the marine environment."@en1
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