Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-03-Speech-3-148"
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"en.20031203.11.3-148"2
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".
Mr President, on 30 November 1999 the Fisheries Agreement between the Community and Morocco expired, bringing the activities of four thousand three hundred fishermen and four hundred vessels to an end. Since then, the aid to the people affected entered into force, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2792/1999, payable under the FIFG. This aid was extended to 31 December 2001, but it was then necessary to implement a policy of converting the fleet, which to a large extent could not be relocated to other fishing grounds. We therefore approved, and on the basis of national plans, Regulation (EC) No 2561/2001, for the socio-economic diversification of these areas affected by the cessation of activities.
In regions particularly affected, such as el Morrazo, Barbate, Algeciras or Lanzarote, fishing activity was drastically reduced or quite simply disappeared, with repercussions for many other sectors linked to this activity and to local production as a whole.
In order to fund these actions the Solidarity Fund was used, as you know, to the tune of EUR 197 million in total. The Regulation also provided for derogating measures and exceptions to the legislation defining the methods and conditions for interventions aimed at structuring within the fisheries sector. Nevertheless, the exceptional nature of the measure led the Council to approve a limited period for it, which has not been sufficient to deal with many of the people affected.
The rigidities of the Regulation have also contributed to this and now, by means of this modification promoted by the European Parliament, they are going to be eliminated. That is why I am so pleased that Mr Fischler should say that the Commission will accept these modifications and the amendments I propose in my report, because the two of us – Mr Fischler and we, the European Parliament – want the fishermen affected to receive equal treatment, so that they may receive the aid for their conversion, regardless of the fate of the vessel on which they work, because the linking of the fisherman to the fate of the ship has been one of the great difficulties.
In certain cases, the vessels were able to be relocated to other fishing grounds, fishing less than they fished in Moroccan grounds and, therefore, losing income. These vessels had to reduce their crews. Nevertheless, the Regulation did not cover these fishermen because it linked the fate of the vessel to that of the fishermen, preventing them from receiving the global premium for their conversion.
Therefore, and so that this Regulation – as both the Commission and the European Parliament want – can in practice deal with the greatest possible number of people affected, we must eliminate the provisions according to which the individual global premiums can only be granted to a vessel or to fishermen who fished in a vessel whose fishing activities have ceased for good. And the modification we are now debating, as the Commissioner has said, also means extending by twelve months the deadline for eligibility of the expenditure, which will now be 31 December 2004, and the last date for submission to the Commission of the request for payment of the balance, which will now be 30 June 2005.
This is what the representatives of the people affected by the closure of the fishing ground asked us in the Committee on Fisheries, including the Loitamar Cooperative, on the Morrazo peninsula (Galicia), consisting of almost 60 workers who previously fished in Morocco waters, but who have still not been able to fully implement their business project. Now, with the greater time margin they are being allowed, they will be able to do so, and all the members of this cooperative will be able – as required by the Regulation – to begin to work in order to be able to receive this individual aid.
This was also requested of us by the Government of Andalusia, which, together with Galicia, the Canaries and the Algarve, is one of the regions which has suffered most profoundly from this failure to renew the Fisheries Agreement with Morocco.
I must say to you, ladies and gentlemen, that this modification, as I propose it, has no financial repercussions, but merely seeks to ensure that the financial resources allocated can be duly disbursed, thereby fulfilling the objective intended by the legislator when the Regulation we are now revising was approved."@en1
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