European Parliament
Piscarreta (PPE-DE ),
in writing
(PT)
I want to express my total support for the European Parliament report on the amendments to the fisheries agreement with Guinea-Bissau.
The waters of Guinea-Bissau, which used to be abundant in fish and crustaceans, have suffered from overexploitation of their resources. Furthermore, the country’s political instability has allowed corruption and a lack of control measures to affect fishermen’s livelihoods.
In addition to extending the current agreement until 2006, the amendments especially involve reducing the fishing effort of essentially non-Community fleets, making better use of Community funding, and strengthening control measures.
With these changes, the Guinea-Bissau authorities will finally be able to modernise the fishing industry so as to improve the surveillance and patrolling of the sea and thus put an end to overfishing.
I join the rapporteur in calling for more information for Parliament on how this bilateral agreement is to be managed, so that a general evaluation can be carried out.
Finally, I hope this fisheries agreement will be a modest contribution to improving the economic and political situation in the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. The European Parliament is thus sending out a positive signal in support of the Guinea-Bissau authorities’ efforts to stabilise the country.

