mr president i would firstly like to extend my gratitude to the fisheries committee and especially its rapporteur mr guerreiro for his report
the commission understands the difficulties encountered in outermost regions in executing the decisions on fleet modernisation taken in two thousand and six
it cannot however accept the continuation of granting public aid to renewal and modernisation of the fleet since this leads to fleet overcapacity and low economic efficiency in the medium-to-long term
however we understand the point raised by the rapporteur that in certain cases the decisions we have already taken have led to a backlog in shipyards which cannot cope with the work foreseen before a given deadline
therefore we are ready to accept the extension of the deadline for the entry into the fleet up to twenty eleven as suggested by the rapporteur
thus i am willing to accept amendments two and seven
however the commission also believes that the basic rules of fleet management that is an entry and exit regime guaranteeing no increases in capacity and the withdrawal of public subsidy to such capacity increases must be safeguarded
otherwise outermost regions would be at risk of generating as happened with the metropolitan fleets an excess of fishing capacity that ultimately would undermine their economy
let me also mention in this connection the fuel package that was adopted in july of this year in the context of the economic crisis driven by high fuel prices
i would like to invite all actors concerned in the outermost regions to make best use of this package in order to improve the energy efficiency of their fleets and to make the fleets more economically viable through schemes offered in the package such as restructuring and partial decommissioning
this is why the commission on the basis of what i said before is not ready to accept amendments one three four five six nine ten and eleven
finally amendment eight could be accepted as long as it is understood that the commission report should be delayed until all information is available on the utilisation of the derogations provided for in the regulation
regarding the call made to the commission to eventually propose new measures may i emphasise that this lies within the right of initiative of the commission which will in any case propose new measures if it is felt that it is necessary and appropriate to do so
