John Stuart Agnew, on behalf of the EFD Group. – Mr President, at the weekend I had arranged to speak to a group of fishermen from the North-East of England. They wanted me to speak to them about how much better life could be outside the CFP. They had actually arranged the time and date for the meeting, so keen were they to be there. Just before the meeting started, I had a call from the leader of a delegation – not of all of them, but of some of them. They were too frightened to come to the meeting. They were terrified of reprisals from our Ministry of Fisheries or the equivalent for listening to me. That is the level of fear now amongst our fishing community. It is disgraceful.

As for this report, British taxpayers have to subsidise the building of Spanish fishing boats to come and fish in what should be British waters. It is absolutely unacceptable! I also note the mention of a European coastguard in the report – no thank you!