§ Mr. ShersbyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it the policy of Her Majesty's Government to oppose the proposed fishery agreement between the European Community and the Argentine Government unless and until it has agreed to the joint management by Britain and Argentina of stocks of illex squid in the waters of the south west Atlantic.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydWe support the principle of an EC fisheries agreement with Argentina. We have obtained several improvements to the original proposals and shall discuss them further with Community partners. We have now reached a bilateral interim agreement on fisheries management with the Argentine Government. We shall continue our dialogue with them to achieve adequate conservation measures which protect the economic interests of the Falkland Islands.
§ Mr. ShersbyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make an estimate of the cost to the Exchequer of contributing to the 28 million ecu financial assistance programme to Argentina under the proposed EC fishery agreement to enable Spanish and Portuguese vessels to fish in Argentinian waters.
§ Mr. CurryI have been asked to reply.
The draft EC/Argentina Fisheries Agreement provides for the granting of 27.5 mecu in technical and scientific assistance to Argentina over a five year period; at the normal rate of United Kingdom contributions to the Budget the cost to the Exchequer would be about £800,000 per annum. Additional sums will be paid to EC vessel owners and their Argentinian partners for joint ventures involving EC vessels fishing in Argentinian waters and the cost would depend upon the number of boats taking up the opportunities. The fishing opportunities available under the draft agreement are not confined to Spain and Portugal but are available to vessel owners throughout the Community.