Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-18-Speech-1-126"

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"en.20021118.7.1-126"2
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"Madam President, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, the reform of the common fisheries policy has made some at times majestic waves of argument. Some of the arguments are reasonable and justified, whereas others are hasty and disproportionate. The reform of the common fisheries policy is necessary, and no sensible person would deny this. The depletion of fish stocks is not a fantasy or an exaggeration by ecologists, by those seeking to protect marine life or by pessimistic scientists. It is a tragic reality for many species. In the past, we also saw the collapse of some population units, but it was then possible to rebuild them by shifting the fishing effort to other species and to other latitudes. Today, this is all but impossible. The example of the collapse of the Newfoundland cod banks, the source of so much history and so much legend in Portugal, my own country, should serve as a warning to us. Of the more than 35 000 species that populate the seas, only one hundred are of commercial and consumer interest. This is a fact! Today, however, we are seeing an impoverishment of biological diversity in the marine environment and the gradual destruction of habitats and ecosystems. The situation has reached this disturbing point not only as a result of the pressure exerted by fishing; but other well known reasons have also contributed to this phenomenon. Fishing is now subject to a dual requirement: the ecological requirement to preserve fish stocks and the political and social requirement to maintain the economic activities of the maritime fishing sector. These activities must, therefore, pay close attention to the state of stocks and not be undertaken in a predatory way or in the form of simple hunting and gathering, as if we were still living in the Stone Age. Linking the Souchet report on the Community Action Plan to integrate environmental protection requirements into the common fisheries policy with the Stevenson report on the reform of the CFP and the Busk report on monitoring and eradicating illegal fishing was, consequently, an inspired move. The reform of the common fisheries policy must necessarily be a compromise that balances all strands: the social, the economic, the cultural and the ecological. Those Members who are most in favour – as they claim – of fishing, should therefore be mindful of the de la Palissian truism: without fish, there can be no fishing."@en1

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