asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what arrangements have been made and what rights can be exercised by fishing vessels from the United Kingdom in respect of EEC waters within 200 miles of each of the French Overseas Departments; and what is the area so covered.

The Community's common fisheries policy, including those provisions relating to rights of access, applies to the whole area of the fishery zones adjacent to the French Overseas Departments. However, fishing in waters under member States' jurisdiction is at present limited by agreement to a standstill based on 1976 levels of fishing. United Kingdom vessels have not tradiditionally fished in the waters off the Overseas Departments and no special arrangements have been made for them to do so. I understand that the fishery zones claimed extend, subject to the delimitation of boundaries with the adjacent fishery zones of other States, beyond 12 miles and in some places to 200 miles off St. Pierre and Miquelon and French Guyana, and to 12 miles off the remaining Overseas Departments, namely Reunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique.