Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-27-Speech-3-337"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060927.26.3-337"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, without taking up any of my speaking time – since this has nothing to do with the issue we are dealing with, but is more a point of order – I would like to put a request to the Presidency of this Parliament arising from an incident in which I have just been involved.
Furthermore, Commissioner, this is a very specific and identifiable fishery and, therefore, the recognition of these issues would enable us to prevent situations in which the European Union’s longline fleet is prejudiced. That fleet is currently obliged to throw away a proportion of the fins in order to comply with the rules, since more than 80% of the catches are of a species that I have already mentioned, Prionacea glauca, whose ratio, as we have said, is 6.5%.
I would say to the Commission that not using realistic conversion factors poses a risk to the European Union since it leads to errors in the estimates of catches, estimates that are obtained indirectly from the international market in fins in Asian countries, where they appear as being of European origin. At the same time – I address this also to the Commissioner – the updating of this percentage, I would repeat, on the basis of the data and the scientific reports, would enable the Community immediately to lead the review that, in accordance with the recommendation of the Community’s own Scientific Committee, is going to take place within the ICCAT and that will probably be followed by other RFOs.
I would stress that the increase requested in no way implies an increase in the catch of sharks nor a relaxing of the measures intended to prevent the practice of
.
Barely a quarter of an hour ago, I left the Chamber for a moment and went into the aisle behind us here and found myself happily looking at the waters in the canal, when I found myself quite literally swept aside by an entourage, which I then discovered was surrounding the President of Lebanon. So far, it was nothing we have not seen a million times in this House. The thing that shocked me, President Borrell, was the attitude of the two people, parliamentary staff, who were leading the entourage.
First they made gestures at me. Then they shouted at me: ‘Mettez-vous sur le côté! [move to the side]’, they told me, and I do not know whether you are aware, but the ‘
’ behind us here is made up of boards with holes in which women’s high heels can get caught, and it is therefore very easy to fall over. I tried to avoid going ‘
’. I pointed out to them – I must put it like this – that I was a Member of Parliament, but I can assure you that it did not do me much good. They practically swept me aside until I was where they wanted me to be: ‘To the side immediately!’.
Madam President, since we are talking about staff of this House, and given the unfortunate timetable for these night sittings, I would ask you whether it is possible to find other ways to treat Members or, perhaps, other routes by which visitors can leave.
Having said that, Madam President, I shall move on to the matter in hand. I shall move on to fish belonging to the taxon Elasmobranchii, which are generally highly vulnerable to exploitation given their life-cycle characteristics.
The practice known as finning, involving the removal of fins and disposal of the body, is prohibited on board Community vessels, both in maritime waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of Member States and in international waters and those of third countries. Nevertheless, given that these species are often caught as by-catch, on 26 June 2003, the European Union adopted a Regulation on the removal of fins of sharks.
The Regulation allows sharks to be handled on board the vessel, with fins separated from bodies, provided that that is designed to achieve greater efficiency in the use of the entire shark, with the fins and the rest of the animal stored on board separately. In order to ensure that
is not practised, the quantity of fins must correspond to that of bodies and, to that end, a ratio or proportion compared to the total live weight is established, and in 2003 that ratio was set at five per cent of fin compared to live weight. This five per cent was decided upon on the basis of United States legislation designed for a different reality and for species of shark that are coastal and have different presentations.
The scientific reports of the ICES and the ICCAT indicate that that ratio is not applicable to the pelagic species caught by the Community fleet, whose fins are far larger than those of coastal sharks.
I would like to point out that the current 5% in the regulation in force and the 6.5% that I am proposing for a single species – in this case the Prionacea glauca – are in line with the most recent scientific reports. In any event – and I address this to the Commissioner – the main objective of the Community legislation must be to reinforce the prohibition of
but – and I say this to him too – in order to ensure that the rules are effective and accepted by all of the parties, they must reflect the specific characteristics of fleets, the morphology of the different species and calculation methods that include cutting techniques and presentation methods used."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"côté"1
"finning"1
"sur le côté"1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples