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Hudghton (Verts/ALE),
draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Fisheries. – Mr
President, Members of the Committee on Fisheries are well attuned to
opinion in Europe's coastal and island communities. That committee, in a
near unanimous decision, endorsed my opinion on this Constitution. The
most important paragraph in that opinion, which will be retabled tomorrow
for voting as Amendment No 13 on behalf of my Group, refers to exclusive
competence. It 'considers that within the context of the other exclusive
competences of the EU, which are detailed in the Constitution, the
inclusion of the conservation of marine biological resources is anomalous
and unjustified'.
The common fisheries policy
has not been one of the European Union's success stories. Decision-making
is too centralised, too inflexible and too remote from the communities
that it affects. To entrench the CFP effectively in primary constitutional
law is a major step in the wrong direction and one that will – I believe –
be an obstacle to the kind of major reforms demanded by the fishing
communities that I am familiar with. Exclusive competence takes the CFP
outwith the principle of subsidiarity, ensuring that regional advisory
councils can never evolve into management bodies.
I hope that colleagues will
support Amendment No 13 tomorrow and support the fishing communities, as
the Fisheries Committee of this Parliament has done. These communities
strongly believe that exclusive competence is not only unnecessary but is
indeed anomalous and unjustified. |
