Mr President, I have no great difficulty with the principle behind this. However, I would like to look at some of the detail. This particular proposal is not important to many countries in the Community. It is important, of course, to Spain and Portugal and, outside the Community, to Canada.

It is rather regrettable that we should be here today in the last days of October, giving an opinion almost in retrospect on a pilot observer scheme from the end of June until the end of December of this year. I wonder if we are wasting our time or, indeed, if I am wasting my one and a half minutes talking about this. We have been handed a fait accompli. It is not good enough for this Parliament to be asked to deliver opinions on matters over which we may have no control whatsoever. Having said that, we must learn from the past and ensure in the future that our opinion is requested in good time and that we can take a decision and not be delivering an opinion on something that is almost finished.

We should look at exactly what is entailed in this pilot observer scheme. In fact, it is not an inspection. Fishing boats could be fishing illegally in those waters. They could be like the Spaniards who fish in Irish waters with hidden holes and breaking all the rules and regulations. We cannot have that, even outside the Community. I would suggest that we should also consider irregularities on ships and that there should be much greater transparency in this matter. I have no difficulty with the principle behind it. I hope that in the future we can regulate our business better than we are doing at the moment.