Council of Ministers (Hansard, 26 October 1977)

§ Mr. John Silkin:

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I represented the United Kingdom at the Special Fisheries Council on 24th-25th October.

The main purpose of the meeting was to consider all the Commission's proposals for a definitive common fisheries' policy. In a statement to the Council I emphasised the economic, social and political importance of fisheries to the United Kingdom; I called for a common policy which would reflect today's circumstances and, by recognising the importance of the United Kingdom's contribution to the fish resources of the Community and our losses in the waters of third countries, would provide a long-term framework for 837W a viable United Kingdom fishing industry. I repeated the United Kingdom's proposal for a variable coastal belt of up to 50 miles around our shores and our readiness, as an alternative, to consider a 12 mile exclusive belt with a dominant preference for the coastal state between 12 and 50 miles. I made it clear that the Commission's proposals for allocating quotas did not meet the United Kingdom's needs, and that the proposals on conservation, were inadequate in themselves and, unsatisfactory because they failed to provide for the continuing right of member States to safeguard the stocks under their jurisdiction in the absence of Community agreement. Copies of my statement to the Council have been placed in the Library of the House.

On conservation, the Council agreed to extend the ban on fishing for herring in the North Sea for the remainder of 1977, but urgent consideration will be given before the next meeting of the Council on 7th-8th November to the problem of small local fisheries which may be facing exceptional difficulties as a result of the ban. The Council did not agree to continue the closed area for the Norway pout fishery, and the Government are considering urgently the action which should now be taken.