Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-13-Speech-2-211"
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"en.20040113.10.2-211"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner Fischler, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Union for Europe of the Nations Group, I would first like to congratulate Mr Varela on his excellent work. My group does, of course, fully support his report.
I would like to highlight two points that we consider to be particularly sensitive: consumer health and employment in the fisheries sector and in the tuna processing sector. After years of tests, scientific analyses and expert opinions, we all know that fish consumption is on the increase: fish is healthy, the consumption of fish products – either fresh, smoked, frozen or canned fish – by European citizens increases year after year, and is also due to several effective advertising and information campaigns.
We also know only too well that in the Member States various requirements, especially those relating to health and hygiene, must, rightly, be met in order to market canned fish products produced in Europe. In order to adequately protect consumer health, the same requisites should also be extended to products from third countries where, unfortunately, health regulations in this area are often too lenient or even, in some cases, completely lacking. We therefore support and strongly insist on the requests made in points 8 and 10 of the motion for a resolution, which point out, respectively, the need to intensify inspections on third-country products – which are, moreover, already provided for by Directive 91/493/EEC – and the need to create Community laboratories to uphold quality, food safety and consumer safety against what is known as food piracy.
The – equally important – issue of competitiveness and, therefore of employment, in the tuna fishing sector and the canned tuna industry, is linked to the sensitive issue of protecting consumer health.
If, in order to adequately protect the consumer, certain requirements are imposed, including those that I just mentioned relating to health, which involves a considerable amount of money being invested, and if the same requirements are not applied to products from third countries then, with the inevitable entry into the Community market of products at very low prices compared to European products, then competitiveness in the fishing industry and the European canned tuna industry will be unfairly harmed. There is a grave risk of job losses in a sector that has already been hit hard in recent years by a worrying socio-economic crisis.
As a result, we would point out the need to support, with every possible regulatory and economic means, the sector in question, which is an important source of employment also in other Mediterranean regions, including Sicily, where fishing and bluefin tuna processing has for centuries provided economic support to a considerable percentage of the active population.
With this message of hope we also want to see an assurance of something tangible."@en1
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