Toelichting van Duitse minister van Landbouw op het programma van de Duitse voorzitter aan de Commissie Visserij (en)

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Mr. Chairman,

Dear Members of the Committee,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to be here today to present to you the work programme of the German Council Presidency.

The European Parliament plays a key role in the institutional set-up of the European Union. The parliamentary work of opinion formation and decision-making is relianton first-hand information.

First, however, I would like to express special thanks to my predecessor from Finland, Juha KORKEAOJA, for the excellent work he has done.

Germany intends to carry on from the good results achieved by the Finnish Council Presidency.

I also greatly welcome the fact that Germany can see itself as part of a team in the 18 months to come. We, our Portuguese and our Slovenian friends will face the upcoming challenges together.

One thing we need in order to stand up to global competition is to have competitive and innovative agricultural, fisheries and food industries.

Yet we lose a lot of time and money in administrative obligations and rules that cause too much red tape.

In Germany, I have started to cut back on reporting requirements, abolish laws and regulations and simplify rules. We will only win the battle again excessive bureaucracy, however, if all countries join in and if the European Union itself faces up to this problem.

Günter Verheugen launched the initiative to reduce bureaucracy.

We want to follow up on this. Germany plans to make great strides in the cutting of red tape during its Council Presidency.

Fewer bureaucratic constraints and instead more freedom for innovation and investment - this is our motto.

The German Council Presidency will therefore focus especially on the simplification of the common agricultural policy, notably on making the cross-compliance regime more practice-oriented.

Another topic we want to move forward under the German Council Presidency is rural development support.Because after all these rural areas are the heartbeat of Europe.

Over half of the European Union's population lives in rural areas. Rural areas safeguard our basic resources for life.

This is true of our food as well as of our natural resources.

It must therefore be our task to exploit to a greater extent the potential inherent in these people and the region where they live and work.

Attractive rural areas in Europe provide an indispensable balance to large city conurbations.

However, we must not only keep an eye on conventional farming in this regard.

Investments in new technologies or an innovative use of agricultural products will frequently open up brand-new sources of income alongside traditional farming.

When I say this, I am thinking for example of the large potential for development of renewable resources.

During its Council Presidency, Germany wants to make an active contribution to the European Action Plan on Energy Policy. Renewable resources offer solutions here for providing an economically efficient, eco-friendly and sustainable energy supply.

Balancing use and sustainability in the protection of our natural resources will be a matter of particular importance under the German Council Presidency.

The oceans represent one of our most precious and also most endangered natural resources.

Germany therefore wants to further expand on the issue of "sustainable fisheries" during the Council Presidency.

Numerous fish stocks for consumption are in an alarming state in Community waters and in many other regions of the world. The cod stock in the North Sea, for example, declined from 290,000 t in 1991 to 129,000 t in 2005 - it more than halved.

The same applies to many other fish stocks. In addition, up to 30 % of the global fish stocks are being depleted by illegal fishing. These figures are extremely alarming.

Ever since the days of St. Peter, fishing has guaranteed life without hunger. This also holds true today - in an even broader sense.

For mankind is reliant on a functioning marine ecosystem.

What this means for fisheries policy is that every effort must be made to rebuild and stabilise fish stocks.

This is why Germany aims to make progress in the following four fields:

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  promoting sustainability in the Common Fisheries Policy,
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  supporting the fight against illegal fisheries,
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  conducting research on climate-induced changes to the fish stocks,
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  moving forward the certification of fisheries and fishery products.

We need to take drastic steps, particularly to safeguard cod fishery in the long term.

Germany therefore welcomes the talks on a multi-year recovery plan for the cod stocks in the Baltic Sea.

The challenge now is to continue the in-depth talks and reach a solution by compromise.

Germany is now awaiting with great interest the European Parliament's opinion in this regard.

In connection with the management plan for plaice and sole in the North Sea, the joint Council and Commission declaration at the December meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council already marks a major step forward.

I also consider it vital in this context to further develop technical measures and take steps to reduce discards.

A further key point during the German Council Presidency will be the fight against illegal fishing.

We will champion an improvement in monitoring fisheries activities and, in addition, support initiatives that aim to restrict illegal fishing.

For these criminal activities are coming at the expense of those involved in legal fishing as well as of the general public.

Another key concern for Germany in this context is the formulation of a binding definition of drift-net fishing, to allow the existing ban to be enforced effectively.

However, illegal fishing is not the only threat to fish stocks. The scientific community is currently engaged in intensive debates on the impact of global climate warming on fish stocks.

Germany will therefore raise the topic of "Climate change and fisheries" at the informal meeting of EU Fisheries Directors in Hamburg in May 2007 to work out possible solutions.

Finally, the German Council Presidency also wishes to pay special attention to the issue of an eco-label for fisheries products,

Actively involving consumers is important, especially when it comes to implementing the Common Fisheries Policy. Sustainability also always requires consumers to act responsibly.

To this end, however, the business world and politics must also provide consumers with the necessary information. More and more consumers are making conscious purchasing decisions, with sustainability criteria becoming increasingly important.

An ecolabelling of fishery products can make a major contribution to this.

Other priorities of the German Council Presidency in fisheries policy will include the intra-Community implementation of the Fisheries Agreement with Greenland and the protection of the European eel.

In the year 2030, Polish children from Hel should still be able to eat their smoked eel on buttered bread, children from East London their jellied eels and children from Ostend their stewed eels.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You can see that we have set ourselves quite a task and will need plenty of energy and creativity.

I hope that we will be able to work well together on these issues, especially with you as Members of the European Parliament.

I am confident that together we will achieve good results.

This is also underlined by the motto we have chosen for our Council Presidency: 

Europe- succeeding together.

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Date: 25.01.2007