Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Madam President, I must say I am relieved that finally the EU can become a party to the CITES Conference. I witnessed myself how important this is a few years ago when I was part of Parliament’s delegation to the CITES Conference in Doha. We did not speak with one voice, we were not very united, we were more occupied by our internal negotiations as EU Member States and then we made a strong position at the Conference itself, so I am very relieved that we have finally become a party to CITES.

Another thing I would like to address here – and the Commissioner has already mentioned it, as have many of my colleagues – is the importance of the fight against wildlife trafficking. That is something that should be done with CITES but of course, and the Commission knows this, this is something that should also be done much more strongly within the EU. I therefore hope that Commissioner Moedas can give the message not only to his colleague responsible for the environment but also to his colleagues higher up the hierarchy in the Commission that we really need an EU action plan against wildlife trafficking, and the sooner the better.