Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-15-Speech-1-154"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060515.18.1-154"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as promised, we are here today, just one part-session later, in a position to present plenary with a report by our Committee on Fisheries on the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Morocco.
I would now like to make a few comments about the strictly fisheries-related aspects of the report. The European Parliament expresses its support for the Agreement but, as I have said, it reserves for itself the task of scrupulously monitoring its application, which is fully in accordance with our duties of control over the Commission, calling for an exhaustive annual report on its application and in particular demanding that we be kept informed of each and every modification introduced into the text; in particular, we ask to be made aware of any opinions the Commission issues with regard to the possible modification of the Agreement’s exclusivity clause. We want to be made aware of how fisheries resources develop, in particular those species excluded from the agreement and of high commercial value, such as cephalopods and crustaceans, since, with the current exclusion, the Galician fleet is marginalised. We also want to be informed of the measures adopted to allow the Andalusian fleet to fish with lamps, as it has been doing, and also to ensure that there is no discrimination in this fishing area or in the measures intended to ensure landing in local ports. We also want to be kept informed of the technical measures that have not yet been clarified in relation to longline fishing and of the agreements of the joint committee that relate to the way in which the European Union’s financial contribution will be invested.
The final distribution of fishing opportunities must be communicated to Parliament, since adjustments are still being made to them at the moment. To this end, we have approved the amendments by Mrs Fraga, so that distributions respect relative stability and the sector and Parliament can observe the application of these vital issues.
While it may appear irresponsible to prolong the parliamentary negotiation of this Agreement indefinitely, we believe that it would have been more irresponsible to approve it blindly and hence to approve it without these demands and guarantees.
Our wish has been to reassure all of the parties involved that the Agreement will be applied rigorously and seriously and in accordance with international rules. That was our difficult commitment and will continue to be so in the future, in order to ensure that the European Parliament conscientiously monitors its application once it has entered into force, in accordance with the amendments approved by the Committee on Fisheries and if the House adopts the report tomorrow, as I hope it will.
I would like to thank everybody for their understanding and cooperation.
We believed that our committee should not be deprived of the opportunity to debate this sensitive agreement, and it therefore had to be debated and approved by us first. I believe that this time has been extremely useful: it has been useful for the rapporteur, who now has more information than he had before, and it has been useful in that it has given us a more in-depth awareness of what has been agreed and of what has not yet been agreed. It has also made it possible for us to help the Commission to promote an Agreement in which certain very important issues are still subject to negotiation, entirely openly, as befits a Parliament.
We are in a position today, therefore, to ask the House to vote in favour of this Agreement, but with the reservations, the adjustments, the guarantees and improvements that we have introduced in the Committee on Fisheries and which are included in the report.
I believe that this report has improved the Agreement and Parliament’s institutional position and we have fully and responsibly carried out the duties for which we were elected. Our real objective was, and remains, to improve the guarantees for the fisheries sector, which is the beneficiary of the Agreement, to ensure compliance with its clauses and to make it operative and viable. We did not understand before, and we still do not understand, why some people were opposed to this exercise in responsibility and transparency.
In addition to the technical fisheries issues that I will comment on in a moment, the Agreement was politically sensitive because of the thorny issue of the Western Sahara, which we could not sidestep but which we could not get involved in either.
I have tried to remain neutral on this issue, acknowledging the problem but not speaking for any of the parties, in order to ensure that Parliament does not show any particular support for any one of them, though at all times respecting international law and the on-going dispute, and not ignoring it, including the United Nations’ doctrine regarding non autonomous territories.
The opinion of Parliament’s Legal Service has been extremely useful and has been incorporated into the report, as well as the amendments by Mrs Attwooll, whom I would like to thank for her sensitivity and understanding, and the only amendment approved by the Committee on Development relating to the Sahara.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Kindermann, coordinator of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, for the assistance he has given me and for his efforts to keep his group united – although he has not achieved this entirely, I am aware of the efforts he has made.
I therefore believe, as rapporteur, that the report is balanced and reasonable, although compromises mean giving some ground and not everybody can be one hundred per cent satisfied."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples