Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-28-Speech-4-158"
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"en.19991028.4.4-158"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, firstly, many thanks for your contributions. I believe this really is the way to make constructive progress in this certainly very difficult situation we find ourselves in with reference to the future agreement with Morocco. Unfortunately Mr Portas is no longer here, as he expressed a rather different opinion. Apparently there are always people who think that discussion and debate involve insulting the Commissioner and then disappearing!
A final point, something which certainly does not help us progress in this difficult matter is our tendency to continually pass the buck to one another, from Parliament to the Council, or Council to the Commission, or vice versa. We can only be successful in this matter if all three institutions work together. This is what I would request, and I find it a pity that the Council is not represented here today to be able to give this guarantee.
You can be certain of one thing: even though I did not in opening mention all the elements relating to the significance of this agreement, particularly for the Spanish and also the Portuguese fisheries industry, I am nonetheless perfectly aware of its significance. But I think we all know how important this matter is, and you can also be sure that I shall be lending my wholehearted support towards arriving at a solution to this matter. I am even willing, Mr Nogueira, to wade in myself, if necessary. This is not the essence of the problem. I would like to stress, in particular, that it is essential to look upon 15 October and the formulation of the mandate for negotiation in the right light. This is undoubtedly not a case of delay. We started to approach the Moroccan authorities as early as February with direct contacts, a great number of letters, and a great many visits. As early as February, we initiated preparatory talks in order to ascertain what exactly Moroccan future interests would entail. For this would have considerably facilitated the task of drawing up a customised mandate in order to be able to have very precisely orientated negotiations. You all know that these efforts were to no avail because, quite simply, our Moroccan counterparts were not yet ready to exchange even a word with us or even meet us to discuss the matter. Our prime concern at the moment, therefore, is how to manage to start meaningful negotiations.
Our positions in the debate have become very clear. When I am told that we must make no concessions, then you have to consider what our respective starting positions are. As far as our starting points are concerned, ours is, as virtually everyone here emphasised, that this agreement is of exceptional importance. Morocco’s current starting position is that they do not want this type of agreement any more! At any rate, emphasising that we will not tolerate any concessions in the negotiations will not, I believe, succeed in making the Moroccan side more open towards us, as it were, and more prepared to come to an agreement with us.
So now, as has been said, it is really important to get things underway. There is another thing you can be quite sure of. It is also very important to me that these negotiations are handled in the most transparent way possible, and, obviously, I am willing to report back to Parliament at every stage on the further progress of negotiations.
It has been stressed how dangerous it would be if this agreement which is, incidentally, not part of the Association Agreement, as many people thought, were to be extended to include associations relating to agricultural goods.
We should be very, very cautious here, and we should try as far as possible to reach an agreement purely concerned with fisheries. When, at some stage in the future, we know precisely what the Moroccan demands are, we can certainly come back again to a further debate on the matter.
I have also been asked whether there is any guarantee that the use of this agreement will guarantee sustainability for the future, and to what extent the satellite monitoring system actually serves to monitor fishing activities. Well, again, to be frank, all the prerequisites have been met on our side. All European vessels operating in this area can be monitored by satellite. There is though still a problem on the Moroccan side. We have proposed to the Moroccans that we are willing, within the framework of the MEDA Programme, to contribute towards resolving these problems on the Moroccan side, but, as has been said, definitive implementation on the Moroccan side is still outstanding.
On the matter of aid following 30 November: I have already pointed out, too, that we wish to proceed on the basis of potential support in principle, as we already did last time. Therefore, fishermen can count on our providing aid. But we must also obtain the necessary administrative prerequisites in good time. Here too, no time is to be lost. Here too, there is some urgency, I believe, and I would like to ask for the support of Parliament in this matter.
The last question, why at this stage have we applied for EUR 125 million in the Budget? I am very grateful to see that this was accepted this morning. It is a matter which I think can be seen from two points of view. I do not think that anyone could realistically expect any future agreement to be obtained substantially more cheaply, or at a substantially lower price, than the previous agreement. Therefore if we envisage an amount in the budget which is exactly equal to the previous annual amount we were prepared to allocate, then that is a clear sign that we are not going to let ourselves be persuaded to part with increasingly high amounts, but that we are setting a limit at this point for the amount of money we are prepared to assign to this agreement. I believe this is a good sign to send to Morocco, one which will certainly be of support to us in negotiating."@en1
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