Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-151"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20031008.13.3-151"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, the Cunha report rightly emphasises the enormous economic importance, for both the Member States of the Union and the partner States, of the twenty-one international fisheries agreements concluded by the Community. Whereas the European Union faces a large shortfall in the increasing amount of fish it consumes and has to import almost half of that amount, the fisheries agreements alone provide one-fifth of total Community catches, worth around EUR one billion and constitutes a particularly significant source of employment both for European countries that have a tradition of distant fishing and for their overseas partners.
This production takes place under controlled, supervised and responsible conditions, giving European consumers solid guarantees of traceability and of fishing methods that are vastly superior to those provided by third-country imports. These fisheries agreements, which serve a commercial purpose, are a good investment for the Union and those who wish to call into question the appropriateness of these agreements and halt their progress would do well to take a close look at the study produced by the Ifremer Institute, which proves that every euro we invest in this framework generates economic activity worth three times as much. The economic balance-sheet is also broadly positive for the partner countries. Investment must therefore be pursued, and even taken further, particularly in the framework our network of tuna agreements.
As rapporteur for the EU-Mauritius agreement, I have been able to assess the scale of the mutual economic interests involved in this key sector that those working in the field in Europe have developed with a number of ACP partners in the Indian Ocean and with Latin American partners. These agreements are a source of supply and of processing activity for European countries and a source of jobs and development for partner countries, and must consequently be supported and extended. When the Commission talks about the coherence that is needed between the various Community policies, it must ensure in particular coherence between the common fisheries policy and trade policy. Hence a misjudged concession made at the WTO on tinned tuna imports in the context of a general removal of customs tariffs, could undermine years of effort and investment, destroy a mutually beneficial sector and lead to relocations that heavily penalise our partners first of all and then us.
I therefore wish to draw the Commission’s attention, Mr President, to this issue, as our Assembly did when it adopted the amendment I tabled during the vote on my report on the agreement with Mauritius."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples