Text tabled : A6-0266/2006

  Marie-Arlette Carlotti (PSE), in writing. – (FR) Between economic difficulties, the exhaustion of stocks and finicky controls, European fishing is in a bad way. Mediterranean fishermen are being hit hard. It is high time the European Union learnt its lessons from this finding.

This report includes several positive guidelines, which represent the fruits both of our joining forces with the fishermen from my region and of the support of my political group. Firstly, it calls on the European Commission to review its work and to formulate more specific and more ambitious proposals in order to respond to the seriousness of the crisis hitting the sector. Secondly, it supports the professional fishermen’s organisations and their role (co-management) in applying the CFP and in improving the management of the resources. Finally, it integrates several of our amendments aimed at safeguarding small-scale fishing in the Mediterranean.

With this in mind, I shall vote in favour of this report, as it constitutes a strong political signal paving the way for an ambitious EU policy.

I would, however, have liked the European Parliament to have gone further in terms of demanding a specific programme for Mediterranean fisheries. Our amendment on this subject has been rejected. We will not stop there. We will continue the fight alongside the fishermen from my region.