Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-12-Speech-1-108"
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"en.20010212.7.1-108"2
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". – Mr President, can I first of all apologise to you, your predecessor and the House for my late arrival. My problems began this morning at a very early point when my flight from Belfast to London was cancelled. Thanks to British Midland International and the good work of their staff, I got here rather late, but still I am here. I apologise, as I did not intend to be discourteous to the House.
I listened with tremendous interest to Mr van Dam talking about half-baked approaches by the Commission and how well the Dutch fishermen were responding. Mr van Dam should go back and read my report because I neither criticised the Commission nor the fishermen. This is not an easy problem. It is a very serious problem. To some extent the fishermen in my region faced this problem last year. For them, this is the second year of closure.
I should tell Mr van Dam and the Scottish fishermen, who are now facing the first year of closure and are creating a lot of waves, that the fishermen from my region not only took this in their stride but actually responded in a very positive way. They cooperated with the Commission in the technical measures and were prepared to look very sincerely at them.
It is not easy for fishermen to take on board a closure of their area for such an extensive period. It is even more difficult when there are no support mechanisms to help the industry find a way forward. This is what I want to concentrate on. When I raise the problem of the Commission coming forward with concrete proposals – be it set-aside or support mechanisms – the Commission says: " let the national authorities come forward with ideas and we will take them on board in a very positive way." But the problem is that the national authorities will not come forward with any sincere proposals to help the fishermen in the region. Certainly not the United Kingdom authorities – and it does not really matter whether it is a Conservative or Labour Government. Neither of them would ever come forward with any positive support to help the fishermen.
I have one amendment to my report and I ask the Commissioner to take it on board. It is to allow the fishermen, under the supervision already agreed at the early part of the closure, to continue right through that closure. If at any time the discards exceed part of that closure, then the fishermen will quite readily accept. At this moment, the Commission has set its face against accepting this amendment. This is unfortunate because the cooperation that is being given by the fishermen to the Commission is a shining example to other parts of the European Union. As Mr van Dam said, there is a tremendous problem, there is tremendous concern and we have to ensure the future of cod for the future of fishermen. I hope the Commission will be able to take on board the very positive aspect that I have put forward in my amendment."@en1
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