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Debates
Monday, 13 November 2006 - Strasbourg
Community action in the field of marine environmental
policy – Thematic strategy on the marine environment
Ian Hudghton (Verts/ALE
). –
Mr President, the European Union has 68 000 kilometres of coastline;
Scotland has 11 000 kilometres. Almost 50% of the EU population live
within 50 kilometres of the sea; in Scotland 70% live within 10 kilometres
of the sea. Clearly it is in Scotland’s long-term interests to protect the
marine environment and to conserve its wealth of marine resources for the
long term.
Scotland has oil and gas reserves
for at least another 30 years. I will be supporting various amendments
that will ensure that oil and gas extraction can continue to benefit the
Scottish and EU economies.
I cannot support committee
Amendment 8 in the Lienemann report, as drafted, because it seeks to link
the marine strategy to ‘the principles of the common fisheries policy’.
The CFP has been a miserable failure and the last thing I want to see is a
new marine strategy linked to such a flawed set of principles.
The idea that Member States should
determine what good environmental status is in waters under their
jurisdiction, and work with their neighbours in logical marine regions
makes a lot of sense. Fisheries management should be brought into that
common sense situation, and jurisdiction should be returned to the Member
States so that, for example, countries around the North Sea can work
together with those who have most to gain from conservation being
encouraged, giving the incentive to make a marine strategy succeed. |
