Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-18-Speech-3-272"
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"en.20080618.24.3-272"2
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"author.
Madam President, I will allow Commissioner Borg some time to settle into his seat. This oral question was initiated at the unanimous request of those groups sitting on the committee that I have the honour of chairing, and I am pleased that it comes after this most excellent debate, which dealt with a number of general issues.
Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, my father was born more than a century ago in a village near Saint-Malo, which in my youth I knew as a place full of life that was dependent essentially on agriculture and fishing. Today this village is dying from a cancer caused by the proliferation of dead cells that are the holiday homes and the gradual disappearance of all those activities that used to enable it to live for more than just the six summer weeks.
This is not an isolated phenomenon but is something that can be seen happening along practically the entire coastline of Europe and as a result of this situation Commissioner Borg, to whom I pay tribute, has been moved to propose the Integrated Maritime Policy, which should enable us to restore, preserve and resurrect the communities that live around the coasts of Europe. If this decision has meant transforming DG FISH into DG MARE it does not necessarily mean that the European Union is determined to see an end to those resources that our fishermen have to continue to exploit in the seas and oceans.
Why does the European Union only have two common policies, namely the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy? When you think about it the answer is simple: it is to enable our continent to continue to obtain sufficient quantities of food by working the soil and fishing the seas. It is therefore in these sectors where the impact of the massive increase in oil prices could well have catastrophic consequences, and of course this applies particularly to the fisheries industry. Already badly shaken by the reduction in resources this profession is today essentially threatened with extinction and this explains – though does not excuse – the violent manifestations of despair that some of its representatives have resorted to and continue to carry on in certain places.
This is why I am delighted, Commissioner, that your Executive Committee has now proposed a number of measures designed to come to the immediate rescue of those industries that are most threatened, including authorising Member States to grant special temporary exemption from the rules that have been imposed for the implementation of the European Fisheries Fund in accordance with procedures that are to be discussed, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, in Luxembourg on 24 June at the next Council of Ministers on agriculture and fisheries.
Let us not lose sight of the fact that the European Union – and the planet in general – has to be able to continue using the seas and oceans to obtain the food resources it needs. There is no point in preserving and protecting the fish if there are no longer fishermen to catch them. In my opinion this obvious fact justifies the detailed proposals that will cover not just the short term but the medium and long term too, proposals that we are working on together, Commissioner, in the Committee on Fisheries, proposals that will be further elaborated to you by the rest of my colleagues and in the draft resolution that will be put to the vote tomorrow."@en1
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