Last year, the World Wildlife Fund published the 'Handbook for Negotiating Fishing Access Agreements', in which it sets out the criteria to be met by fisheries agreements with regard to sustainable development and the protection of fish stocks.

In a nutshell, you said that we had spent money on reducing the fishing effort, and we see that these funds have, in actual fact, served to increase it; you said that we had spent money on preserving fish stocks, and – on the basis of the figures you have disclosed, although we were not able to see them – fish stocks have become completely impoverished; you said we had spent money on limiting the social impact on this sector in terms of employment, and today you have told us that 66 thousand jobs have been lost and 28 thousand are likely to be lost in the future.

8. Believes that current levels of industrial fisheries are highly detrimental both to the survival fish stocks for human consumption and the marine environment as a whole, and that the Commission must consider a real reduction in levels of industrial fisheries forthwith;

- the necessity of conserving fish stocks is insufficiently respected, the parallel application of rules on minimum length and on minimum weight creates confusion and complicates enforcement, illegally landed fish is commercialized and intervention normally means that good quality fish are either destroyed or reduced to the low-value products fish-meal and fish-oil, in a situation where the scarcity of the fish resources is recognized by all as a tremendous problem;

Consequently, whilst pursuing the objective of rational conservation and management of fish resources, the Commission will propose to the Council a partial suspension of the EC autonomous quota for cod in NAFO division 2J3KL.

I. THE PRESENT SITUATION : SECTOR IN CRISIS The resource conservation policy in force at Community level since 1983 is based on total allowable catches (TACs) split up between the Member States in the form of annual quotas and on technical restrictions designed primarily to reduce or eliminate the taking of young fish.