Rules for access to certain Community fishing areas and resources

the committee decided By a large majority to reject the Commission's proposal on the rules for the full integration of Spain and Portugal into the Common Fisheries Policy. Members then voted through several amendments to the Commission's text. However, in the overall vote on the proposal, it was not possible to achieve a majority in favour of the resulting compromise. At this point, the chairman, Mr ARIAS CANETE outlined three options to the committee: - adopt the draft legislative proposal without amendment; - reject the draft legislative resolution and ask the President of Parliament to request that the Commission withdraw its proposal; - repeat the vote in committee in the hope of reaching a compromise. the committee decided on the second course of action. A letter will thus be sent today to President HAENSCH requesting that the item be put on the agenda for the Brussels plenary on 30 November. The committee will therefore recommend that the House confirms its rejection of the Commission's proposal and that the President (according to Rule 59 of Parliament's rules of procedure) calls on the Commission to withdraw it. If the Commission refuses, the matter will be sent back to the committee, which must report back to Parliament within two months. In this event, it is likely that the issue would be discussed at an extraordinary meeting in Strasbourg on Monday 12 December. �