Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-16-Speech-4-041"
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"en.20041216.6.4-041"2
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"Mr President, I must begin by saying how surprised I was to hear Mr Ribeiro, the rapporteur, speak in favour of amendments rejected by a majority of the Committee on Fisheries. I should now like to make it clear that our group will support the Commission’s proposal, namely the Ribeiro report, as it was adopted in the Committee on Fisheries. We shall be voting against the amendments tabled, for the reasons I am about to give.
We are opposed to the inclusion of bottom set gill nets because, as everyone is aware, these are static nets. By their very nature, they do not erode the sea bottom. The amendment concerned refers to a possible biological disaster. At most, this could be linked to the loss of these nets and subsequent so-called ghost fishing
As the Commissioner stated, there is no scientific data relating to areas or species. This is why I think it is somewhat flippant and a bad precedent to ban or attempt to ban gear of this kind in the areas in question. Indeed, to follow the arguments through, the gear would have to be banned from all Community waters. It would be interesting to see if those who are in favour of a ban in this case would also be in favour of a more general ban.
I shall now turn to the second amendment. On the basis of criteria derived from marine geology and biology, this amendment calls for the protected areas proposed by the Commission to be replaced by the 200-mile political criterion. It should be pointed out that, rightly or wrongly, that criterion is no longer relevant to fisheries management under Community law. I must emphasise once again that coral reefs are not located exclusively within a 200-mile radius from the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores. The scientific community accepts that coral reefs are generally found around a 1 000 metre bathymetric line. In accordance with the precautionary principle, the Commission has therefore gone up to the 1 500 metre bathymetric line
These lines do not of course tally with political and administrative demarcations. In addition, in this particular instance, the zones designated by the European Commission extend beyond the 200-mile limit in some cases. International waters are affected.
Mr President, these are the reasons why our group will not support the amendments tabled."@en1
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