This report deals with a serious issue and that is fishing under flags of convenience. Vessels that fish under flags of convenience ignore all the rules, they exploit the best fishing grounds and they wreak havoc. In recent times, as fleets continue to increase and resource abundance plummets, flags of convenience are increasingly used as a means of avoiding measures taken by countries or regional fisheries organisations to manage fisheries and conserve stocks. Pirate fishing can be seen as a undesirable consequence of states at last attempting to improve the management of fisheries. The environmental impact of pirate fishing vessels is virtually impossible to evaluate as by definition data on catches are non-existent or, at the very best, unreliable. The impact is known to be severe, even if undocumented, as pirate vessels target mainly high-value species such as tuna, shrimp, toothfish etc.. There are also serious social problems. Ship-owners take advantage of the lack of controls to reduce training safety standards, pay minimal wages, and lower standards of living and working conditions. They require long working periods without proper rest and they provide completely inadequate medical attention. They are responsible for many other offences. Fishing is now a global industry. Fleets from the EU cover all the oceans of the world, as do those of several other distant water-nations. Markets are also global. One-third of the total fish production that entered international trade in 1998 was worth over USD 50 billion. Capital is perhaps the most global commodity of all. EU fisheries investments can be found in many countries. As a result, a concerted international effort is needed to eliminate fishing under flags of convenience. This will involve the countries issuing the flags or whose citizens work on the fishing vessels, the ports into which they come for re-supply or off-loading, the markets in which the fish is consumed or the home of the capital which finances this destructive phenomenon. As the EU has both one of the largest fishing fleets and one of the largest markets for fish, it can play a particularly important role in regard to flags of convenience fishing. Many EU-owned vessels use flags of convenience. Some may even have had FIFG money to transfer to those countries and I am pleased to see that the Commission has now proposed regulations to prevent public funding being used to transfer to flags-of-convenience countries. I would call upon the Council to adopt them this week. In contrast, I should mention Japan and Taiwan, who have recognised the extent to which their longline industries use flags of convenience and they have taken corrective measures by launching programmes to repatriate or to scrap a large number of tuna longliners. At least 62 Japanese-built flags-of-convenience longliners will be scrapped by the end of 2002. A further 67 FOC longliners built in Taiwan will be repatriated to replace older vessels, with no overall increase in fleet capacity. It is expected that this will reduce the FOC tuna longline fleet by about half. These programmes are funded by both government and industry. I believe these moves should be highly praised and that this is the way we should proceed as well. Spain is proposing a law to list certain flags-of-convenience countries and we welcome that. Regarding market state responsibility, the EU is a large market and so it must improve control measures. For instance, currently it only wants to ensure that fish are caught according to rules of regional fisheries organisations which the EU belongs to. This needs to be extended to ensure that fish are caught according to the rules of all regional organisations. It must also be made illegal for EU citizens or companies to trade in fish caught by flags-of-convenience vessels. This is called for in the FOA plan of action on illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. We should go in that direction also. The campaign that must be waged against pirate fishing is a global and multifaceted one. All countries with any involvement in the fishing industry – such as catching the fish, owning or crewing vessels, providing harbours, buying the final product – must participate. The EU, as one of the most important regions from all these points of view, clearly has a special responsibility. I can only hope that the Commission and the Spanish presidency acting together will begin to tackle this very important matter in the months ahead. It is in the interests of all EU fishing industries to ensure that this is done.

Political group: Verts-ALE