European Union (Amendment) Bill

This amendment opens up a subject that has caused a great deal of pain and confusion since the United Kingdom signed up to the treaty on the European Community in 1957. Since then, a proud industry has been decimated. This is particularly true in regard to the management of fish and marine stocks around these islands. It is incontrovertible that, so far as conservation of marine biological resources is concerned, if the common fisheries policy has existed at all, it has been an unmitigated disaster. When debating this issue in another place, my honourable friend Bill Wiggin pointed out that the Minister had affirmed that the EU competence on marine biological resources and fishing derived from Article 102 of the UK treaty of accession, which said that, "““the Council, acting on a proposal from the Commission, shall determine conditions for fishing with a view to ensuring protection of the fishing grounds and conservation of the biological resources of the sea””." Until now, that is the sole text to which the UK Government have signed up. This wording was found to be unclear, and a ruling passed by the European Court of Justice in 1979 said that: "““The power to adopt … measures relating to conservation of the resources of the sea has belonged fully and definitively to the Community””." Noble Lords will be aware that this means that all control of the resources of the sea, right up to our shoreline, comes under the administration of the European Community. It is only by the grace of three derogations from the starting date of this ruling that we are allowed to administer our own territorial waters between the shore and the six-mile limit. Between the six-mile and the 12-mile limits of our territorial waters, the rules have to be acceptable to all member states. Defra has the responsibility for policing the area, and this is where it can impose its own regulations on British fishermen, but not on the vessels of other member states who have not given agreement. The type of thing that happens is that British fishermen, if they catch crabs that are below a certain size, have to put them back. However, if the French boats are fishing next to them, they can catch those same crabs and take them away, because a different size restriction applies in France. This derogation will expire in 2012. After this treaty, will this derogation be renewed under the codecision procedure or by the Council of Ministers? Whichever, it is bound to be an open question as to what new rules will be agreed under a regime that is founded on unrestricted access to the seas. Surely, when asked to clarify our treaties, we should consider going back to the original document before we sign up to any rewording of the provisions. The proponents of this treaty tell us that they wish to bring clarity to all European arrangements. In this case, clarity consists of adding to the heading of Article 1, Title II, which is ““Agriculture””, the words ““and Fisheries””, and then going on to codify the powers in Article 2, paragraph 12, Articles 2B and 2C, by saying that in the area of conservation of marine biological resources under the common fisheries policy, the Union will have exclusive competence. The treaty goes on to say that the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy will be areas of shared competence. So much for increased clarity. Does the Minister know what marine biological resources do not come under the common fisheries policy? Is it oil or something else? He will be aware that when an amendment on this topic was discussed recently in the other place, MPs who know the fishing industry—Members of all parties—expressed dismay at this allocation of competences. They all know that, at a time when it has been found in most countries that the success of the fishing industry is highly dependent on having reasonably local control, our Government have been prepared to sign a treaty which amounts to a power grab by the European Union of the management for all time of our considerable marine resources. Anyone would think that the UK would be in a very strong position when it comes to discussing fishing. Within the EU, some 70 per cent of fish landed come from within our 200-mile fisheries limits, although only 12 per cent are landed by British boats. The Minister will be aware of the importance of fishing to the Scottish economy. I believe that 65 per cent of fish landed come ashore in Scotland. Under the devolution settlement, Scotland administers the area of sea from Scotland out to the six-mile limit, but it is the control of the highly productive area between six miles and 12 miles that raises most concern and is the responsibility of Defra. Unless the UK is prepared to take a very strong stand on the issues in this area, one can see why the Scottish Executive will be demanding to take the prime negotiating responsibility in any future negotiations on the CFP. Even the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries voted against the proposal in the treaty. The committee stated that, "““within the context of the other exclusive competences of the EU which are detailed in the draft Constitution, the inclusion of the conservation of marine biological resources is anomalous and unjustified””." All those in the industry who are trying to follow any programme of conservation or management around our coasts can feel only totally frustrated. The implementation of the clauses in this treaty will not help one bit. Fishing is bound to be an area of great interest and importance regarding marine biological resources, but there are many other areas, of course. What effects will these powers have on the Government’s much vaunted marine Bill? It really looks as if all the questions of special protection areas and marine reserves will be dealt with at the say-so of Brussels. There will be spillover into permits for the abstraction of minerals. It looks as if, unless some other directive intervenes, the only areas on which we will have sole competence are the quality of the water and, possibly, leaving minerals undisturbed. What will the standing of the six regional advisory committees for fishing be? They have recently been set up and have been seen as a reasonable step towards resolving some of these issues on the waters around England. The main part of the common fisheries policy that has destroyed any credibility in its efforts at conservation has been the total allowable catch regime and the inevitable consequence of discards. The latest EU publication on this topic gives figures of the discards of flat fish in certain areas by beam trawlers at an estimated 70 per cent by weight and 80 per cent by number. Overall, it is an estimate of five tonnes of fish discarded for every tonne landed. Where can one see conservation in that? Even then, the EU has to admit that its knowledge of discards in some areas is poor, let alone the lack of accurate information on the catches of foreign vessels within the six-mile to 12-mile area. No wonder the fishermen out at sea all the time reckon that they have a much more realistic estimate of the status of the stocks than that obtained from the official statistics. There is some comfort for us in the determination of the present Commissioner for the CFP that, by the end of his term of office in 2010, there should be a new regime on discards for all countries. However, the record so far does not give us grounds for great optimism. Can the Minister say if and when the UK reckons to be able to submit its proposals for meeting this deadline? A properly managed and sustainable fishery is in the interests of all fishermen, and the fact that Britain should argue that it should manage its own fisheries does not mean that all the fishermen would have to be British. The only way that properly managed fisheries could be ensured would be to remove our waters from exclusive EU competence, as the amendment proposes. The only other solution would be an insistence on having the same powers that we have for six miles extended uniformly to 12 miles in the next EU derogation. But I think that we would have to wait an awfully long time before we could expect that concession. I beg to move.