Mr President, the majority of the earth's surface consists of sea. People cannot live there but we make ever more intensive use of it. Not just to travel from one continent to another, but also to drill for oil, to extract other minerals, to dump waste and to generate electricity using tidal power stations. Mercury, lead and radioactive waste are reducing sea-life and making fish ever less fit for human consumption. Shallow coastal regions, river mouths and other transitions between fresh and salt water, where fish used to have their spawning grounds, have been greatly altered as a result of human interference. The sea has long been regarded as the source of an inexhaustible food supply. It is being fished with ever larger vessels and with ever more refined technology to clear out the sea. This is being done in the seas bordering Europe, but to an increasing extent further away as well, by European ships along the African coast. I have previously taken a stance by rejecting agreements which the European Union enters into with countries in the developing world in order to be able to go and fish the sea there until it, too, is exhausted. In the short term, it is true, this will provide a solution to the European food requirement and in exchange we will also pay something to poor countries for it. In the long term, however, it is definitely not a win-win situation from which we all stand to gain. The demand for fish continues to grow while the supply continues to decline as a result of overfishing and pollution. There are still fishermen who believe that the sea remains inexhaustible. Last week I heard a fisherman who was being interviewed on Dutch television say, “The fish will always be there, that has always been the case and it says so in the Bible as well”. These sorts of certainties, which appeared to be true for centuries, will increasingly vanish in the future. That is why it is good that times and areas are designated in which the fish stock has to reach a certain level and when and where fishing is prohibited as a result. For the same reason, the fishing quotas must be restricted. The rapporteur recognises that the supply of cod in the fishing ports on the east coast of the Irish and North Sea has declined dramatically in the last ten years. The quantity currently permitted is less than a fifth of that at the beginning of the nineties. The actual catches, which are smaller than those permitted, fell to a quarter. That is how exhausted the sea is. In spite of this, the rapporteur wants to extend the exclusion period in which the catch is less restricted, by six weeks between 22 February and 30 April and he criticises the large area of sea to be closed off to fishing during the spawning season. Groups of fishermen protest if they get the impression that governmental measures are unilaterally to the disadvantage of their country while their colleagues from other countries are allowed to carry on clearing out the sea. Then pressure arises to mitigate measures and to permit more exclusions. In this way, attention is at risk of being diverted from the necessity of fishing quotas. Owing to the short-term disadvantages, everyone expresses outrage and opposition to fishing quotas. But we would be better advised to close more areas completely for a prolonged period than to let the fish die out completely as a result of inadequate measures. This is currently under discussion with regard to the North Sea as well. IN THE CHAIR: MR FRIEDRICHVice-President

Political group: GUE-NGL