Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-07-Speech-1-100-000"
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"en.20110307.19.1-100-000"2
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"Mr President, the Protocol of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement with Mauritania is due to expire on 31 July 2012. In view of the importance of this Protocol, the Commission has already asked the Council for a mandate for its renegotiation. We have been informed that the Council is currently studying a mandate proposal and will decide shortly.
Lastly, urgent clarification is needed of Mauritania’s use of the Protocol’s monitoring provisions as regards its preference for methods other than the vessel monitoring system (VMS), and also its varying standards on ship arrests. It is important that both parties respect the agreed terms for the resolution of disputes in connection with such arrests, which must be preserved in the new Protocol.
Commissioner, for all these reasons, we will be asking that the Commission, as the negotiator, takes into consideration these and other concerns, which will form part of the common resolution set to be approved at the next plenary session, and which our institution will follow very closely.
On the strength of Article 218 of the Treaty, which grants Parliament special powers in the final approval of fisheries agreements, we have already voiced our intent to make full use of the possibilities granted to us by the Treaty and the interinstitutional framework agreement to participate in shaping fisheries agreements, with the right to full information on an equal footing with the Council.
We believe we should be involved in the process from the moment when the negotiating mandate is approved. The Fisheries Commission has thus decided to introduce a new procedure starting with the Mauritania Protocol, whereby we will submit an oral question and receive information on the future negotiations from the onset of the process. The procedure will also allow us to produce a draft resolution setting out our concerns on the agreement in issue – in this case, Mauritania – with the request that they be taken on board by the negotiators and ultimately become part of the final Protocol.
The agreement with Mauritania is crucial both for the country itself and for the European Union. For Mauritania, it represents 29% of the national budget; for the European Union, it is one of the three mixed agreements still in force, allowing the presence of several different modes of fishing in the country’s waters, all of them vital for EU fish supplies.
The significance of this agreement and the experience we have built up have prompted us to put forward a number of suggestions that will be reflected in the common resolution set to be negotiated by the political groups in the coming days, and also to voice a number of concerns on the way in which the current Protocol works. These concerns include the following:
Firstly, Parliament must understand the importance of securing the industry’s support for the financial contributions and their correct use, bearing in mind the needs of both the industry and the Mauritanian fishing authorities in making headway towards an advanced, sustainable fisheries policy.
Secondly, the joint scientific committee has a key role to play and care must be taken that it fulfils this role properly, as it is the body responsible for assessing resources and issuing recommendations on the biological status of populations, and therefore on the fishing opportunities available to the different fleets operating in Mauritanian waters.
Thirdly, more information is needed on the catches of other non-EU countries operating in the area, so that we can accurately establish the real fisheries surplus that Mauritania can offer the EU, while also ensuring that the fishing opportunities negotiated are in line with the actual needs of the fleets. This will avoid any temptations to pay for ‘paper fish’.
Fourthly, it is important, as far as the fishing fleet is concerned, to ensure that the technical measures for the different fisheries are negotiated at the same time as the fishing opportunities, thus putting an end to the absurdity of paying for resources that are technically impossible to catch."@en1
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