Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-06-Speech-3-365"
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"en.20060906.24.3-365"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I should like to begin by congratulating our rapporteur, Mrs Fraga, on the quality of her finely nuanced report which successfully reflects the complexity of what is at stake. The overall objective is to encourage the sector to adopt fishing methods more in keeping with the objectives of sustainable economic, social and environmental development.
Indeed, there is no denying the facts: the overexploitation of fisheries resources affects 25% of species and, in the case of a number of these, in a particularly worrying way. Where cod alone is concerned, stocks are down to a third of the minimum volume recommended by scientific experts if this species is not to become extinct. These are the terms in which the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety has emphasised its priorities in the opinion it has drafted. We have our doubts about the option favoured by the Commission in this debate, namely that of establishing minimum demands – as referred to by the Commissioner – regarding these eco-labelling schemes.
Our own choice is meant to be more ambitious: single, centralised labelling according to essential criteria whereby the scheme is transparent, optional in character, accessible and credible – a point emphasised by the rapporteur. Admittedly, the success of this initiative depends on the actors in the sector being properly consulted. In the end, it basically depends, however, on consumer choice. In this connection, it is instructive to visit, as I myself have done, the fish counter of a supermarket and read the injunctions to ‘protect the sea’, ‘support sustainable fishing’, ‘fish ecologically’ and so on. There is a host of confusing messages.
With this proliferation of labels, the risk we run is that of missing our target. Consumers will feel neither involved nor encouraged to make the more informed choices we should like them to make, and we shall not have succeeded in achieving our objective, that is to say of creating a virtuous circle. I therefore share Mrs Fraga’s conclusions and hope that the Commission will, in the end, take a serious and analytical look at the options proposed and will take account of our recommendations in the next stages of this process."@en1
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