EU: Common Fisheries Policy

Lord Eden of Winton Excerpts

Wednesday 13th July 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, this is becoming rather easy, because I think I can agree with the noble Lord as well in terms of the direction that we are travelling in. I think that we ought to continue to travel in that direction. We will continue to fight for a ban on discards and deal with that very serious problem. We will also continue to negotiate with other colleagues in Europe on the other matters that my noble friend and the noble Lord mentioned.

[Lord Eden of Winton]

Can my noble friend say, on the subject of discards in particular, whether the fisheries of any other countries within the European Union take a different line from that which our own fisheries have taken?

[Lord Henley]

My Lords, discards are a particular problem, not so much in Mediterranean waters but more in North Sea and Atlantic waters. That is why I stressed in my earlier responses the need for regionalisation on these matters. As my noble friend and as others have put it, discards are something that we all find abhorrent. The whole idea that such things should still be happening is wrong, and we will fight to end discards. We are already doing a considerable amount to reduce the amount of discards within the UK fleet.