Mr President, my group supports the Commission's proposals. It has been clear now for many years that cod needs to recover from the excessive pressures put on it by modern-day fishing. Like many other species, stocks are far below sustainable levels, and this has led to massive socio-economic problems in coastal communities. People are losing sight of the point here and putting the cart before the horse. The socio-economic problems have arisen from an ecological problem. If you tackle that you are tackling the socio-economic problems, instead of going at it in the opposite direction. There has been over-fishing for many years because of the TACs being set too high, and, basically scientific advice has not been followed. The Council has asked for a proposal for a recovery plan, which the Commission proposed in 2001, but the Council still does not seem to have the courage to adopt it. This is the fourth attempt. The proposal has many good ideas including: outlining conditions under which fishing can be permitted; rules for deciding about fishing, given various levels of stock abundance and also attempts to improve control and surveillance requirements and an initial management of the effort. The ICES press release of Monday, which Mrs Stihler has already mentioned, shows that stocks are in grave danger. This is a clear illustration of the danger of setting excessively high quotas, but this has been going on for years and it is still continuing. Last year, several TACs were set higher than ICES advised. The extreme example is the Irish Sea, with TACs set on average 28% above scientific advice over the past ten years. Is it any wonder that stocks are actually in trouble? ICES talks of drawing a line in the sand, but ministers and industry and many of the politicians even seem to be burying their heads in the sands, and this is the problem. Ministers actually have to move away from this Luddite position of ignoring scientific advice and take the scientific advice on board. It is claimed that the common fisheries policy is getting on to a sustainable basis as a result of the reform of 2002. There have been some advances, such as better provision for control with improved cooperation among Member States and the possibility of effort limitation, in addition to classic limits on the amount of fish caught and recognition of the precautionary approach which is essential. But it is not all good. The MAGPs, which we will come back to later today, have disappeared and there is no further requirement for reduction. This all sounds good on paper but it depends entirely on the political will to implement. The Commission is making a sincere effort to improve things, and the will, as usual, support the Commission. However, there is a crucial level for the survival of the stocks. But in the Irish Sea the Commission's proposal would allow fishing below a stock level of 6000 tonnes, whereas ICES is now advising closure until stocks reach that level. It is vital that the Commission reflects ICES advice when recommending TACs for the next year on these stocks. We can no longer ignore ICES. Mrs Stihler has mentioned the situation in Canada. That will happen here if we do not take a progressive position.

Political group: Verts-ALE