Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-14-Speech-3-375"
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"en.20011114.15.3-375"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, it is late, but we are awake, wide-awake even. The alarm bells are ringing, the Gordian knot has not yet been hacked in two, but Parliament, I hope, is not giving up. What is at stake here? At stake are jobs and the way the people of Europe perceive the EU.
Thanks to the emergency motion tabled by our colleague, Daniel Varela, we have an opportunity this evening to discuss an issue which is as problematic as it is urgent. It concerns how to deal openly and honestly with the consequences which the failure of the negotiations with Morocco have had for the Iberian peninsular.
The bare facts are quickly stated: since November 1990, we have heard, the EU fleet – in practice deep-sea fishermen from Spain and Portugal – has no longer been able to fall back on the resources off the coast of Morocco. The 4 300 fishermen and 400 vessels affected are hoping that the compensation payments will be continued when they expire in December 2001, as Mrs Miguélez Ramos has explained to us so convincingly. Behind these figures there are people, families and whole communities who are committed to a traditional industry and we now need to give that industry prospects for the future. In so doing, our efforts should certainly not be confined solely to giving financial handouts. It is much more important that we – and here I would bring the Commission and the Council on board too – succeed in producing a comprehensive plan which is convincing and whose aim is to provide reduced, but no less profitable, fishing activity, or alternative work.
I would take this report as a further direct indication of how extremely important and urgent it is to reform the European Union's common fisheries policy, a task which is occupying all of us at the moment. It is no coincidence that the individual key words – external relations, trade agreements, capacity reduction and extensive restructuring – are also a leitmotif in the working documents on the reform. The current situation in Spain and Portugal also highlights the fact that it is now high time to conclude a package which is really worthy of the name reform.
It is unacceptable to reduce members of a proud industry to the level of being simply recipients of charity. As a Community of values we must not allow this. Falling yields have, I believe, helped us to recognise the huge challenges. Let us now work together to identify the right action to take and let us show the flexibility which the rapporteur and also other colleagues have reminded us is so important."@en1
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