COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1639/2001
of 25 July 2001
establishing the minimum and extended Community programmes for the collection of data in the fisheries sector and laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000, of 29 June 2000 establishing a Community framework for the collection and management of the fisheries data needed to conduct the common fisheries policy (1), and in particular Articles 5(1) and 8(1) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000 establishes a Community framework for the collection and management of data needed to evaluate the situation of the fishery resources and the fisheries sector. To this end, it stipulates that Member States set up national programmes for the collection and management of fisheries data in accordance with Community programmes.
(2)
It is therefore necessary to establish a minimum Community programme covering the information strictly necessary for the scientific evaluations and to establish an extended Community programme which also includes information likely to improve in a decisive way the scientific evaluations.
(3)
The information required for each programme should be collected in the form of evaluation modules covering fishing capacities and fishing effort, catches and, finally, the economic situation of the sector.
(4)
The Member States' programmes for the collection of data for scientific evaluations should be compatible with the collection of data for the management of other aspects of the common fisheries policy and with the collection of data pursuant to the Member States' obligations to the Community's statistical programme.
(5)
Rules relating to the transmission of, and access to, the data, including with regard to confidentiality, as well as rules relating to technical modifications and exemptions to the Community programmes, should be set out. Procedures related to the monitoring of the national programmes should also be established.
(6)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Subject matter
The minimum and the extended Community programmes referred to in Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000 are hereby established as set out in the Annex.
This Regulation also lays down certain detailed rules for the data to be collected under the Member States' national programmes.
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
1.
‘segment’ means a group of vessels as homogeneous as possible in terms of physical characteristics and of use of fishing gear resulting from a partition of the segments contained in the fourth multiannual guidance programme (MAGP IV);
2.
‘commercial fishing fleet’ means vessels registered and licensed, according to Council Regulation No 3690/93 (2) or otherwise authorised to fish for the purpose of commercial exploitation of fisheries; information on which Member States should provide to the Community's fishing vessel register under Commission Regulation No 2090/98 (3);
3.
‘recreational and game fisheries’ means all fishing activities not conducted for commercial fishing purposes;
4.
‘primary data’ means data associated to individual vessels, natural or legal persons or individual samples;
5.
‘effective fishing power’ means the estimation of the fishing power of vessels by a comparison of the catches made by those vessels;
6.
‘nominal fishing power’ means the expression of the fishing power by a physical characteristic (engine power or tonnage) or by a combination of such characteristics;
7.
‘fishing effort’ means, for a vessel, the product of its fishing power and of the duration of its fishing activity and for a group of vessels, the sum of the fishing efforts of all the vessels concerned;
8.
‘type of technique’ means the use of a specific fishing gear, or to the use of one or more fishing gear inside a group of gears;
9.
‘space-time disaggregation’ means the combination of a time period and of a geographical stratification into subareas;
10.
‘exhaustive sampling’ means a study of a population in the statistical sense with regard to a parameter, if all the individuals constituting the aforementioned population are actually measured;
11.
‘processing industry’ means the industry involved in the preparation and preservation of fish, shellfish or molluscs as well as in the preparation of products containing fish, shellfish or molluscs;
12.
‘sector of the processing industry’ means a part of the processing industry based on the type of processing (frozen, salted/dried, smoked, canned, prepared dishes, others) and on channels according to the groups of species concerned (demersal and deepwater species, Thunnidae, pelagic species other than Thunnidae, other fish species, shellfish, cephalopods, bivalves, other molluscs, others);
13.
‘aggregated data’ means the aggregated data as defined in Article 2(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000;
14.
‘functional unit’ means an operational grouping of statistical rectangles, corresponding to the area of distribution of a geographically isolated biological stock or assemblage of biological stocklets as set out in Appendix II;
15.
‘catches’ means the total live weight of fish initially caught i.e. gross catch;
16.
‘landings’ means the live weight equivalent of the landings i.e. nominal catch;
17.
‘discards’ means the total live weight of undersized, not saleable, or otherwise undesirable fish, discarded at the time of capture or shortly afterwards.
Article 3
Requirements for the national programmes
The national programmes set up by the Member States taking into account the Community programmes set out in the Annex shall comprise in particular:
(a)
the links with the Community programmes, specifying the planned actions by section and by reference to the programme;
(b)
the elements of analytical accounts distributed by section and by programme as well as by geographical area as set out in Appendix I, level 2;
(c)
in the event of sampling, a detailed description on the strategies followed and the statistical estimates used making it possible to appreciate the levels of precision and relationship between the cost and precision;
(d)
the elements making it possible to demonstrate cooperation and task-sharing between Member States.
The programmes shall provide for estimates of levels of precision referred to in point (c) by 31 May 2003 at the latest.
Article 4
Submission of the national programmes
Each Member State shall submit to the Commission, by 31 May of each year at the latest, by electronic means, its national programme referred to in Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000.
Article 5
Transmission of data to international organisations
1. Data referred to in this Regulation may be transmitted by the Member States to the relevant international organisations in accordance with the specific rules and regulatory provisions of these organisations.
2. Member States shall inform the Commission of the transmission of the information referred to in paragraph 1 and provide the Commission with a computerised copy upon request.
Article 6
Coordination between Commision and Member States
1. The Commission shall examine the national programmes and check that the conditions provided for in this regulation are observed.
If the examination by the Commission of a national programme should reveal that it does not meet those conditions, the Commission shall immediately inform the Member State concerned and propose amendments to that programme. Subsequently the Member State concerned may submit a revised national programme.
2. Member States shall submit, by 31 May 2003 at the latest and by the 31 May following each year of application of the programme thereafter, a technical report of activity detailing the state of completion of the aims set at the time of the drawing-up of the minimum programme and of the extended programme.
3. Each Member State shall designate the relevant authority in charge of the implementation of this regulation, hereinafter referred to as ‘national correspondent’.
4. Each Member State shall communicate by 31 May 2001 at the latest the particulars of its national correspondent to the Commission and to the other Member States.
5. The national correspondent shall inform the Commission regularly of the state of progress of the national programmes.
Article 7
Non-compliance with Community programmes
If the Commission considers that the obligations set out in the modules of the Community programmes are not respected by a Member State and that the Member State concerned received Community financial assistance for these modules, it shall inform the Member State concerned which shall carry out an administrative enquiry.
The Member State shall inform the Commission of the progress and of the findings of this enquiry and send it without delay a copy of the report drawn up following the inquiry, notifying the main elements on which it is based.
The Commission may decide to reclaim any sum unduly paid, with interest for the period in question.
Article 8
Technical modifications and exemptions
1. The Commission may authorise the modifications of surveys referred to in the Annex, section G(1)(iii) on the basis of advice of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries ( hereinafter referred to as STECF).
2. The Commission may, upon advice of the STECF and in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 9(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000, decide on exemptions from the obligations set out in the Annex, sections H and I.
Article 9
Management of primary and aggregated data
1. Member States shall take all necessary measures so that primary data collected under this regulation are dealt with in a confidential way.
2. The primary data shall be kept for the necessary time in order to carry out any relevant task and at least for five years.
3. Each Member State shall ensure that the aggregated data pertaining to the Community programmes are incorporated into computerised databases accessible by electronic means to the Commission and the national correspondents according to Articles 10 and 11.
4. Aggregated data referred to in paragraph 3, may not include any evidence which could make it possible to identify individual vessels, natural or legal persons.
5. Member States shall guarantee the safety of the data processing on their respective computer systems, in particular when the treatment requires transmission by network.
6. Member States shall take all the necessary technical measures to protect data against any accidental or illicit destruction, accidental loss, deterioration, distribution or unauthorised consultation and against any unsuitable form of treatment.
Article 10
Access to data by the Commission
1. If the Commission wishes to use aggregated data collected pursuant to this Regulation, it shall specify to the Member States concerned the data in question.
2. Member States shall take the necessary measures to enable the remote consultation of the data in question or their duplication within a period of time not exceeding 20 working days.
3. If a Member State is not in a position to satisfy the request for access made by the Commission, it must immediately inform the Commission and give reasons.
4. When a computer file has been set up by the Commission from the data of the Member States, this file may not be kept for more than 20 working days following the date for which the information was requested and must therefore be destroyed except when explicit written agreement of the Member States concerned has been obtained.
Article 11
Access to data by Member States
1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to facilitate access by the national correspondents of the other Member States, to the computerised database containing the aggregated data.
2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission and to other Member States the reasons which justify a suspension of access to data covered by this Regulation.
3. If a national correspondent wishes to have access to data held by another Member State, it shall send a request to the national correspondent responsible for access to this data. That national correspondent shall reply to the request within 10 working days following that request and must give reasons for any refusal.
4. Member States may conclude agreements or agree upon IT protocols relating to computer access in order to facilitate access to the databases. They shall inform the Commission without delay thereof. The expenses generated by access to the databases shall be borne by the national correspondent requesting it.
Article 12
Confidentiality
The members of the STECF and participants of meetings that it organises are not permitted to make a copy of part or all of the data for use outside of the meeting.
Article 13
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 25 July 2001.