Mr President, I am participating in this debate in order to demonstrate my position and also to demonstrate our desire to support any positions which will contribute, both in Parliament and in the European Commission, to the achievement of the new agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco. To this end, I support the resolution tabled by the European Popular Party, the European Socialist Party and the UEN Group, and I belong to the group of ten MEPs from the Group of the who have expressly supported it. Logically, our position is a consequence of our conception of the relationships of the European Union and also the specific interests of the countries which we represent. I wish to express our support for the signing of the agreement for two fundamental reasons. Firstly, because we consider that the policy of reaching agreements with non-EU countries is a correct policy on the part of the European Union. In this case it is a policy which affects an essential industry, which affects a significant section of our society as well as employment in certain countries. It affects the way of life of our coastal populations, in the same way that agriculture affects the populations of our inland regions and – why not say it – it affects a fundamental part of the food requirements of the entire European Union. We clearly want these agreements to respect the conservation of resources. We clearly want them to defend and respect the interests of non-EU countries. But I would like to say that the agreements should not only refer to poor non-EU countries, that is, Morocco, Angola and other countries, but that they should also refer, and this is also a European Union Policy, to agreements with Canada, the United States, Australia and Argentina, countries with which my country – specifically Galicia – has a direct relationship. I would like to say that at last, agreeing with these arguments, the Spanish Economic and Social Council has said that European Union agreements with non-EU countries lead to seven times the benefit than the cost of producing them. I said that this particularly affects the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese States: the Canary Islands, Andalusia and Galicia, in Spain. In Galicia, specifically, you know that 120,000 jobs rely directly or indirectly on fishing and that the agreement with Morocco especially affects three very significant areas: Ribeira, O Morrazo and A Guarda, where there are approximately 150 ships and 1,500 sailors who depend on the signing of the agreement with Morocco. I would like to remind you here that on 15 November 1995 the economic and social cooperation agreement with Morocco was only signed after Morocco had agreed that a fisheries agreement had to be signed. I say this because these two agreements, which were considered essential if the Euro-Mediterranean Conference in Barcelona was to take place, shows that in our fisheries agreement, as we and Morocco want, all relations, political, economic and social, with the neighbouring Mediterranean kingdom should be taken into account. I also want to say that no agreement will be valid unless it conforms to the fishing industry as it actually exists. The fishing industry in the Kingdom of Morocco is made up of small businesses owned by shipowners for whom it is absolutely impossible to create joint enterprises which are largely Moroccan. Therefore, the new agreement must be an agreement which extends, while amending the necessary clauses, the current agreement, bearing in mind, of course, that we respect the fact that this agreement must benefit the economic and social development of Morocco. On the other hand, we want a quick negotiation and in any event we want significant and sufficient economic support for the sector affected – shipowners and workers – to cover any transitional period during which there is no right to fish in those waters.

Political group: Verts-ALE