§ Mr. Lennox-Boydasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether agreement has yet been reached on revised Community guide prices for 1981 in the fish sector.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerIn its report on document 11429/80 which set out Commission proposals for guide prices for fish for 1981, the Select Committee on European Legislation noted that these were politically important and recommended them for debate.
In the course of negotiation we were able to secure changes to the Commission's proposals which will benefit our fishing industry.
Once I was satisfied that we had the best possible agreement my view was that it would have been wrong to have left our industry in continuing uncertainty by delaying matters any further and that the new, higher prices should be agreed and introduced as soon as possible. In the usual way the new prices would have applied from 1 January.
I regret that it was not possible to debate the Commission's proposals. But I think the sense of the House in this matter was clear from other occasions when the issue of guide prices has been raised. Details of the prices which come into effect on 2 February will be placed in the Library.