HC Deb 20 November 1997 vol 301 cc259-60W
Mr. Streeter

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the legal authority of the letter from the President of the European Commission, agreed at Amsterdam, on quota hopping.[16945]

Mr. Doug Henderson

The letter records the interpretation of the Commission of how a Member State may, within the rules of the Single Market, establish an economic link between fishing activity and fishing communities. Under Article 155 of the EC Treaty the Commission is the guardian of the Treaty, and the letter carries that authority.