Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-21-Speech-2-195"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20090421.22.2-195"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"−
Mr President, I would like to begin by reminding us all that a few weeks ago Greenpeace reported a Galician company
to the Spanish public prosecutor’s office for receiving subsidies to the value of EUR 3.6 million from the Spanish Government, between 2003 and 2005, despite the fact that, since 1999, the company has accrued numerous sanctions in several countries for illegal fishing around the world.
Such a policy is destined to fail if those people working in the fishing industry, from the fishermen to the traders who sell fish to consumers, do not comply with the rules. Fish stocks are fated to disappear along with those who depend on them for survival.
On a number of occasions, the Commission and the European Parliament have lamented the low level of compliance and we have requested, among other things, that Member States increase controls, harmonise inspection criteria and sanctions, and that inspection results be more transparent. In addition, we have requested that Community inspection systems be strengthened.
The proposed regulation that has given rise to this report tackles the much-needed reform of the existing control system and puts forward a series of recommendations to be added to existing ones following the adoption of the regulation on illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing – ‘yo-yo’ fishing – or the regulation concerning the authorisation of fishing activity.
The most important factor of a control system applied to 27 Member States is probably that all stakeholders should be treated equally and, in particular, that everyone along the production chain – fishermen, middlemen, buyers, people who have links to recreational fishing and others – should feel that they are not being discriminated against but also that they have their share of the responsibility on this matter.
Therefore, we must ensure that conditions are equal across the Community and also along the entire chain of custody.
While we also mostly support the Commission’s original proposal, the proposal we are tabling includes a series of aspects allowing us to make considerable progress in that direction.
I would just like to highlight one aspect by mentioning the need for the Community Fisheries Control Agency to play a particularly important role, given its Community nature and its impartiality order.
I therefore hope that the amendments we have tabled at the last minute, so as to finalise the report, will be accepted by my fellow Members as has already been the case in our committee debate, and I hope, indeed, that it will prove a useful tool to save those who are in need of saving: not just the stocks but the communities that make a living from them.
In fact, the Commission has condemned this situation recently.
Last week the bluefin tuna fishing season began. Scientists tell us that we have already gone beyond the acceptable limits of sustainable fishing of this species, which is clearly at risk of extinction.
The Spanish defence minister is currently in Somalia leading the operation to protect the tuna fishing boats deployed in the Indian Ocean against pirate attacks.
If European tuna vessels have to stray so far from home in order to work, it is because, firstly, the closest stocks are on the point of collapse and, secondly, we have an oversubsidised and clearly oversized fleet that seeks profitability even at the expense of using up the main element that sustains its activity: the fish.
Once again, the common factors in all these cases – and in many others – are overfishing, the excessively large European fleet and, most importantly, the lack of control and capacity to impose sanctions.
That is why our report maintains that applying the rules in a non-discriminatory and effective manner should be one of the basic pillars of the Common Fisheries Policy.
We therefore ask, for example, that it be explicitly forbidden to give public subsidies to anyone acting illegally, as in the case of
.
Complying with the rules and adopting a coherent approach are the best ways to protect the interests of the fishing industry in the long term."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"Armadores Vidal"1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples