Mr President, I can be brief because what has been said in this debate this morning covers the subject extremely well. I would like, however, to congratulate Mrs Fraga Estevez on her report. It is an extremely good bit of work and we will be supporting it completely. I would also like to congratulate Mrs McKenna who made a very interesting and competent intervention and said a lot of the things that I would wish to have said. Therefore, I do not need to repeat them. For a maiden speech I thought she did extremely well.

Let us look and see what we are talking about. We are talking about bringing in a ban on drift-netting. If we do not ban drift-netting we will have to bring in some other regulation. We all know that other regulations can easily be worked around to make sure that fishermen can achieve what they want to achieve. Therefore, a total ban on the use of drift-nets is the only way forward as we see it. We have consistently in this Parliament sought a ban on drift-netting. The United Nations is seeking a ban on drift-netting throughout the world. We have got to go along with that because if we do not ban drift-netting we will be reducing the world's fish resources dramatically year on year so that there will be no fish stocks left.

Our French colleagues quite rightly say that it is going to have an effect on their fishermen. We must recognize that fact. But the point is this: they will also have a problem if we allow the drift-net fishery to continue. It may not be immediate, it may take a year or two, but unless we have that complete ban on drift-nets there will be no resource left for the French fishermen to go and hunt in future years. Let us respect Mrs Fraga Estevez' report and let us support it completely.