I can say something about the fishing question, and one of my colleagues can comment on the constitutional treaty.
On fishing stocks, we have made assessments on the implications of the weather situation and climate change for our area, in conjunction with people from Spain and Morocco. The medium- and long-term forecasts are bad for our region. Desertification will grow a lot in northern Africa—Morocco is our close neighbour. In the Iberian Peninsula it is foreseen that one-third of its territory will become a desert. The biggest part of the desert will be in the south of Spain, but one part in southeast Portugal will also be immensely affected.
There are simulation studies on what could happen there. They are not one-sided; they have diverse assumptions. A small increase in sea level is predicted, with some effect on the coastal areas that are less protected against the tides and all those effects. But I confess that I have not read anything special about modifications to the fishery.
We are at the same time improving our artificial production of fish and seafood, like mussels, through some strong investment. As you may know, Portugal is, per capita, the biggest fish-eating country in Europe. In the world it ranks fifth or sixth after certain small Pacific archipelago countries and Japan.
We are in a big deficit regarding fish because we have been expelled, through the normal deliberations of the sea law, from some traditional long-distance positions. Our coastal resources are not very plentiful, and for that reason we've became huge customers of fish imports from the Spanish fishery industry; they have very long-distance positions in Chile, Peru, and other parts of the world that are very aggressive. We also import from Morocco. For crab and all those types of things, we import from the U.K., Scotland. We get codfish basically from Norway, which has improved a lot, the U.K., and I hope from Canada. The Russians have also entered those markets through their North Sea production.
As you know, codfish was very much eaten in the past in the Catholic countries of southern Europe—Portugal, Spain, southern France, Italy, and Croatia. It was the type of fish, when brined and salted, that could be used through the summertime when there was no refrigeration.
Prices have increased a lot. Some countries, especially Norway, have highly developed their industry and can now deliver to Portuguese customers all these things dried and salted according to the tastes of local consumers—very well done. New types of semi-salted and semi-humid-preserved codfish are a very big industry. It is very professional and very good. We also import from Iceland, as you know.