Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-24-Speech-4-050"
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"en.20050224.4.4-050"2
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".
Mr President, as always there is no easy answer. I shall attempt to address all the questions that have been asked, but I should like to start my answer with a phrase that Mr Kindermann used; ‘a political sign of solidarity’. Our aim is to send out precisely such a sign by means of this project, which is merely a small part of a much larger aid measure, and one way in which we can provide aid rapidly and to those who need it.
With your permission, I am now going to give a more specific answer to a few particular questions. First, the question of the calculation. I have heard talk of EUR 47 000, 50 000 per vessel. As has already been explained to the Committee on Fisheries, these figures are not correct. The vessels’ owners are paid a scrapping premium for them in any case. The only thing that changes is that the vessels are not scrapped but transferred, and the transport cost is no more than EUR 4 000 per vessel. That is therefore the cost to be taken into account and not the fanciful figures that have been mentioned. Incidentally, they are not small boats. Small boats like dinghies can of course be rebuilt on the spot. What we are talking about here, however, are medium-sized vessels of not more than 12 metres, and the necessary capacity for building such vessels does not exist on the spot.
Another question was about the age of the vessels. The average age of European vessels in service is 25 years; that of the vessels that will be exported to the countries affected by the tsunami will be between 5 and 20 years. We are not therefore talking about very old boats.
On the question of experts, I would like to say that experts have already been sent out and more will be sent. Moreover, it is at our request that the FAO is making an assessment of needs and this point will be on the agenda for the 12 March ministerial meeting, at which Mr Borg will represent the Commission. We are all in favour of close cooperation with the FAO; we will see to it that our experts are able to contribute.
So far as the establishment of the early warning system is concerned, together with experts from international bodies, the Commission is in the process of setting up early warning systems by transferring our technologies to the countries concerned.
Mr President, I would like to say very clearly that the condition of the vessels and their suitability for the needs will be examined by experts. The needs will be assessed by the FAO. We want to be ready if requests come in. We have already had a request for vessels from Thailand. Finally, Mr President, I believe this is a moral question. Can we continue to scrap vessels here if they can be of use to fishermen on the other side of the world?"@en1
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