Mr President, the South-East Atlantic is one of the last areas of the world's oceans where there is no regional fisheries organisation. It was to fill this need that the new Convention on the Conservation and Management of Fishery resources in the South-East Atlantic Ocean was agreed in April 2001, which will create the South-East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO). So far only Namibia has ratified the convention. Hopefully Parliament's vote tomorrow will speed up ratification by the European Communities. Then only one more ratification would be needed before it enters into force. The purpose of SEAFO is to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources in the South-East Atlantic, beyond the national jurisdiction of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. It covers fish, molluscs, crustaceans and other sedentary species, but not highly migratory species which are covered by ICCAT. The report provides some basic background material that I shall briefly cover here. The fish stocks of commercial importance at the present time include hake, horse mackerel, sardinella and anchovy. Most of these, however, are caught in national waters. The Commission suggests that any catches of these species in the high seas off the SEAFO area would be small. So what species will come under the management authority of SEAFO? In other areas of the world, as fish stocks in coastal waters are progressively over-exploited and depleted, the fishing industry is turning more and more to deep water species. In many instances fisheries for these species are completely unregulated but the characteristics of these fish mean that they are very vulnerable to over-exploitation. They are extremely slow growing. They live for extremely long periods of time and with very limited distributions. History has repeatedly demonstrated that these fisheries operations are best described as fish-mining because the fish stocks have been depleted so rapidly. In the waters of the South-East Atlantic there are a number of stocks of deep water species, including Patagonian tooth fish, orange roughy, oreo, dory and deep-sea prawns. Only very preliminary information about the biology and the abundance of these species is yet available. That should already be cause for grave concern. However, the fact that management measures have recently been agreed for at least some deep-sea stocks in the Northeast Atlantic is encouraging. In my report I mentioned a couple of areas, in which the test, while stronger than some earlier conventions, is actually weaker than the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. Probably one of the most important is the reference to the precautionary approach, which is significantly weaker than in the new convention signed recently for tuna fishing in the western Pacific. Details of this are contained in my report. On the other hand one commendable inclusion in the SEAFO Convention is the interim arrangements for monitoring, control and surveillance, which are to be welcomed. Whether or not SEAFO meets the high expectations and ambitious objectives remains to be seen. The success of any regional fisheries organisation depends entirely upon the political will of the contracting parties. In that sense I have some worries about the behaviour of the European Union. Unfortunately, and much to the shame of the European Union, there have been numerous examples, spanning many years and in several organisations, where the European Union has not abided by the scientific advice of the Regional Fisheries Organisation. In this sense the historical record is not cause for optimism that the EU will do all in its considerable power to promote conservation of fisheries resources in the South-East Atlantic. I hope that there is a change of mind in the European Union on this. I wish the new SEAFO every success in managing its fisheries. I hope that the EU acts as a constructive force in this area.

Political group: Verts-ALE