1. Emphasises that 70 million members of the EU’s population are dependent on the fisheries sector; in that connection, calls on the Member States to encourage research and development activities with the aim of developing a more competitive, sustainable and up-to-date fisheries sector; points out that consolidated community policies such as agriculture and fisheries, which form the basis of the EU’s economy, notably on the periphery of the Union, require appropriate and targeted scientific support. Stresses that traditional ways of solving sector-specific problems such as environmental impact, provision of feed, health control and int ...[+++]egration in coastal zones have long since ceased to be the primary and most important sources of solutions; recommends that the financial framework enable the funding, under the European Fisheries Fund, of facilities and scientific research equipment in the field of fisheries;

That ATK is interested in acquiring cutting-edge technology and an integrated production and engineering capacity is not surprising, but I do not see how this acquisition would necessarily block the ability of the Canadian government or the Canadian Space Agency to work in a public partnership in the future with ATK in Canada and procure, for example, the next generation of radar satellite technology.

In addition, given the special challenges that equipment acquisitions pose for smaller businesses, our brief proposes that such businesses be permitted to expense in the year of acquisition investments of at least $40,000 to purchase data processing equipment and peripherals.

The Commission’s initial market investigation has found that the proposed acquisition may create significant competition problems given the two companies’ horizontal overlaps in markets for medical devices for the treatment of coronary and peripheral artery diseases and for cardiac surgery.

On the other hand, it's perhaps so modest that it does raise some sovereignty protection implications, which the committee might like to address. In terms of possible measures we could take, I'll run through these very fast: additional land, sea, and air deployments from southern Canada; improved multi-agency data sharing and analysis; the creation of a modest, and I stress modest, northern training centre; the retention and upgrading of the Arcturus, Arctic sovereignty aircraft, or what was nominally supposed to be an Arctic sovereignty aircraft but is now scheduled to be disposed of; acquire a supplement to the Twin Otter aircraft currently stationed in Yellowknife; acquire and we're looking at naval options an ice-capable seabed ope ...[+++]rations vessel; explore a full range of space-based sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles, and subsurface surveillance systems, northern terrain vehicles; explore the utility of high-frequency surface wave radar in the north I believe Dr. Leggatt spoke to you about that and acknowledged that it had some potential utility, but there were limitations; and, in the longer term, continue to explore the potential for installing air-independent propulsion power plants on the four recently acquired submarines.

22. Calls on the Council to ensure that technical equipment used to secure external borders will in future be interoperable and to take steps to pave the way for joint procurement of mobile surveillance apparatus (radar and satellite monitoring);