§ Mr. Blenkinsopasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Council of Ministers (Fisheries) meeting in Brussels on 19 February.
§ Mr. John SilkinMy hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland and I represented the United Kingdom at this meeting.
There was little discussion on and no progress towards a satisfactory revision of the common fisheries policy. This meeting was mainly concerned with relations with third countries.
The Council considered proposals granting fishing rights in member States' waters to Norwegian and Swedish vessels for 1979, in line with arrangements negotiated by the Commission. I was not prepared to approve these in the absence of proposals for a division among member States of 1979 Community quotas at 149W north Norway. It was therefore agreed that the existing arrangements for Norwegian and Swedish, and also Faroese, fishing, should be rolled forward until the end of March.
The United Kingdom maintained its reserves on the conclusion of framework agreements with Norway, Sweden, the Faroes, Spain and Canada pending a satisfactory overall settlement of the fisheries issue. I indicated that I would be prepared to accept the Canadian agreement only, which has special features, if some consideration were also to be shown by others on points that were important for the United Kingdom. But since such consideration was not shown I maintained the United Kingdom reserve.
Further consideration will be given to Commission proposals to limit overall Community catches of certain stocks shared with third countries, most importantly the North Sea stocks shared with Norway. I pointed out that in the absence of other regulatory measures such limitations could lead to an undesirable concentration of fishing efforts in the early part of the year, and suggested that the problem would be alleviated by the rapid introduction of a minimum mesh size of 80 mm for white fish fisheries.
There were also some inconclusive discussions on structural matters.