Noting with satisfaction that the Council of O.E.E.C, and the Ministerial Committee for Agriculture and Food have instituted a procedure for the regular confrontation of national fisheries policies;
Noting with satisfaction, also, the action of the European Productivity Agency in the field of consumer education,
Recommends that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the Council of O.E.E.C. examine the following suggestions, which are designed to increase consumption and intra-European trade in fish products and at the same time improve living conditions for the fishing populations:
1 to take co-ordinated action to promote the establishment of pilot cold chains and freezing warehouses, as O.E.E.C. is now undertaking in France and Italy, with due regard to and in collaboration with other sectors of the trade in perishable food ;
2 to promote the establishment of uniform standards of hygiene in the fish trade;
3 to examine the possibilities of giving further support to the efforts of the European Productivity Agency in the field of consumer education;
4 to study the improvement of national marketing arrangements, including the possibilities of moderate Government stocking in order to help secure greater regularity of supply and even out abnormal price fluctuations;
5 to enquire into the investment problems of the fish trade, particularly the possibilities of providing financial assistance during the initial period in which investments in improved transport and trade installations are not likely to pay;
6 to study methods of co-ordinating production and consumption policies, with a view to the liberalisation of trade in fish products at least to the extent necessary to reduce seasonal fluctuations in supply ; and, in examining the protection afforded to fisheries industries labouring under special difficulties, to consider the application of other measures than quantitative restrictions;
7 to examine the possibilities of improving fisheries statistics and establishing a uniform commercial classification.
