Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

Very briefly, I want to remind the Minister of the fact that the European Union regulation to which my noble friend’s amendment refers was examined by the European Union Select Committee of this House in its 25th report, published in 2003, commenting on the progress of reform of the common fisheries policy. The committee made the point then that this regulation was the most controversial of the 18 documents published about the outcome of the consultation process. What is the attitude of the European Commission today? The difficulty is that there is a gap between the declaration of intent and the implementation of the policy. Other noble Lords have talked about the need for consistency in the establishment of conservation zones. The consistency will come about only if the European Commission requires it to happen, and therefore the attitude of the main fishing countries such as Spain and France is very important. We need to know exactly where they stand.