Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-482"
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"en.20080617.44.2-482"2
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"Mr President, first of all allow me to thank the rapporteur, Mr Gerardo Galeote for this report, which I can fully support, and for his efforts in dealing with this file in the most diligent manner. I am also pleased to note the strong support of the Committee on Regional Development for this proposal.
The Canary Islands are one of the European Union’s outermost regions and are characterised by their geographical and economic isolation. The European Union has long recognised the need to reduce, eliminate or temporarily suspend customs tariffs in order to encourage production in such regions by facilitating the supply of raw materials. Since 1991, the European Union has suspended, partially or in full, the common customs tariff duties on imports into the Canary Islands of a number of products. In the case of fisheries products, such measures applied only to raw materials to be used in products solely intended for consumption in the local market.
The import quotas at reduced tariff proposed now by the Commission follow on from similar measures laid down in Council Regulation (EC) No 704/2002 of 25 March 2002, which covered the period from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2006. The tariff quotas are to be seen, in terms of support to the Canary Islands’ economy, as complementing other measures taken on the basis of Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty, in particular the scheme to compensate for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the outermost regions – implemented by means of Council Regulation (EC) 791/2007 of 21 May 2007. In order to align the proposed measures with the latter scheme, the Commission proposes that the tariff quotas should apply for seven years to cover the period 2007-2013. This is two more years than provided for under the previous Regulation and should come into force retrospectively as from 1 January 2007 in order to ensure continuity.
Turning to the report, I would like to comment on the amendments proposed. The Commission notes that three amendments relate to the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In this regard, I would like to underline that the Commission has recently proposed a comprehensive system to prevent products resulting from IUU fishing activities entering the Community market, a proposal for which Parliament has expressed broad support.
The Commission considers that it is not in the proposed tariff quota regulation that measures to combat IUU fishing should be included. Therefore the amendments cannot be accepted. Instead of having a piecemeal approach, the Commission is of the view that the issue of illegally harvested products should be dealt with by means of horizontal instruments, applying to all products imported into the Community market, including the Canary Islands.
I would once again like to thank Mr Galeote for the report and the Committee on Regional Development for its attention on this very important issue."@en1
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