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Verbatim report of proceedings
Tuesday, 10 March 2009 - Strasbourg OJ edition

Multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean (debate)
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  Philippe Morillon, Chairman of the Committee on Fisheries.(FR) Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Parliament’s decision to accept the Council’s request for application of the urgent procedure for this matter was a unanimous one, both in the Committee on Fisheries last week and here in plenary this morning.

We are, of course, all aware of the need for the European Union to honour the commitments made in Marrakesh last November by the competent international commission, the ICCAT. We need, specifically, to put into practice the recommendations that this organisation adopted in order to curb the persistent problem of overfishing of bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean and to confront the resultant serious risk to the future of the species and thus to the fishing industry itself.

Two of my colleagues in the Committee on Fisheries, Mrs Fraga Estévez and Mr Romeva i Rueda, were in Marrakesh and will be talking about this during the debate. For my part, I would like to remind you that our committee attaches great importance to this matter, which brings into play the main aspects of the common fisheries policy: resource management, fleet management, respect for international, regional and bilateral agreements, technical measures and, above all, monitoring, to which I will return shortly. This defining issue is thus, in our view, a test of the credibility of the common fisheries policy.

For this reason, there was obviously no question of the new recovery plan being implemented without consulting the European Parliament.

I am therefore delighted that the Commission ultimately chose the only legally and politically acceptable route for implementing the ICCAT’s recommendations, namely, submitting a proposal for a regulation in due form on the basis of Article 37 of the Treaty.

The transposition into Community law of commitments made by the Commission on behalf of the European Union in regional fisheries organisations is, after all, hardly an uncontroversial operation, and we must insist that it should always be carried out under the democratic eye of this institution.

I am, essentially, very pleased with the various measures put forward as, although they are rather restrictive for our operators, they are in line with the challenges, and I would emphasise that the most important of these measures are, without doubt, those relating to monitoring, as it is certainly true that no recovery plan can be effective without monitoring.

I am therefore grateful to you, Commissioner, for this proposal, and I hope that you will show just as much determination in actually implementing the plan, once it has been ratified by the Council, as you showed in reaching a satisfactory agreement within the ICCAT.

 
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