Mr President, the study 'Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon', published on 9 January 2004 in Science magazine, compared the levels of 14 organochlorine contaminants in samples of farmed and wild salmon.

This is an issue which needs to be addressed, not just in relation to farmed salmon but in relation to other farmed fish.

The reason is that on the day it was published in Science magazine it was sent out by press release by an international PR company based in New York and simultaneously appeared on the website of the Canadian-based Suzuki Foundation, which campaigns on behalf of Alaskan wild salmon and which, of course, has a vested interest in damaging the European farmed salmon industry.

Existing Community legislation was drafted mainly to take into account the farming of salmon, trout and oysters.

(2a) It is necessary for the Commission to investigate fully the source of ISA in Scotland, the possible spread of the disease and the interchange between farmed and wild salmon;

Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 2210/80 of 27 June 1980 on the conclusion of an Agreement between the European Community and the Government of Sweden relating to certain measures intended to promote the reproduction of salmon in the Baltic Sea (1) provides that the amount of the Community contribution must be equal to the actual costs to the Swedish authorities of breeding, tagging and releasing the quantity of smolt necessary to produce a quantity of salmon equal to the non-reciprocal quota allocated to the Community in the Swedish fishery zone for the year during which the contribution is to be granted;