Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-29-Speech-3-031"
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"en.20020529.5.3-031"2
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"Mr President, I am grateful to the Commissioner for his presentation. Of course, radical reform of the CFP was long overdue and the Commission is to be congratulated on producing a dynamic first package of proposals, particularly in view of the concerted effort to derail the reforms, which we were speaking about at the beginning of this meeting, and the attendant storm of controversy that this clumsy bullying tactic created.
I welcome the proposals to make permanent the 6 and 12-mile zones which are essential safeguards for fisheries. I am delighted to see significant devolution of management and conservation controls to the Member States within these zones. Indeed, devolution of management is a core feature of these CFP reform proposals. The creation of regional advisory councils involving fishermen, scientists, representatives of the aquaculture sector, marine ecologists and even the recreational angling sector, together with regional politicians represents a breakthrough in stakeholder involvement.
I applaud the bravery of the Commission in demanding an immediate end to the bizarre spectacle of subsidising modernisation and new building of vessels in some Member States, while subsidising the scrapping of vessels in others. We all know that there are far too many fishermen chasing too few fish. We all know the EU fleet capacity must be cut. We must therefore insist that all public aid be switched from modernisation and restructuring and new building to scrapping.
However, as regards overall capacity reduction in the EU fleet there is great concern about the Commission's figures. According to my calculations, on a country-by-country basis, the northern Member States who have fished primarily in the North Sea, the Baltic and the Atlantic will suffer a 21.3% cut in gross tonnage. Meanwhile, the southern Member States who fish in the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and the Bay of Biscay will experience only a 9.2% cut in gross tonnage.
Taking individual examples, the UK will be required to scrap 23.1%, Belgium 25.3%, Denmark 27.3% and Sweden will face a staggering loss of 49.7% of her gross tonnage. Meanwhile, Spain, with by far the largest fleet in the EU, escapes with only a 9.4% cut and Italy with the second largest fleet only suffers a cut of 7.3%.
People are wondering if the Commission has bowed to bullying pressure from Spain. We will closely scrutinise these figures in the committee. The Commissioner said that we do not want to go down the road of everyone being equal, but some people being more equal than others – that seems to be exactly the road we are going down with these proposed cuts."@en1
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