REGULATION (EC) No 218/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 11 March 2009
on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic (recast)
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (1),
Whereas:
(1)
Council Regulation (EEC) No 3880/91 of 17 December 1991 on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic (2) has been substantially amended several times (3). Since further amendments are to be made, it should be recast in the interests of clarity.
(2)
The management of the Community's fishery resources requires accurate and timely statistics on the catches by Member States' vessels fishing in the north-east Atlantic.
(3)
The Convention on Future Multilateral Cooperation in the North-East Atlantic Fisheries, approved by Council Decision 81/608/EEC (4) and establishing the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, requires the Community to supply that Commission with the available statistics that it may request.
(4)
Advice received from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea under the Cooperation Agreement between that organisation and the Community (5) will be enhanced by the availability of statistics on the activities of the Community fishing fleet.
(5)
The Convention for the Conservation of Salmon in the North Atlantic Ocean, approved by Council Decision 82/886/EEC (6) and establishing the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (Nasco), requires the Community to supply Nasco with the available statistics that it may request.
(6)
Several Member States have requested the submission of data in a different form or through a different medium from that specified in Annex IV (the equivalent of the Statlant questionnaires).
(7)
There is a need for fuller definitions and descriptions used in fishery statistics and in the management of the fisheries of the north-east Atlantic.
(8)
The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (7).
(9)
In particular, the Commission should be empowered to adapt the lists of species and statistical fishing regions, the descriptions of those fishing regions and the permitted degree of aggregation of data. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Each Member State shall submit to the Commission data on the annual nominal catches by vessels registered in or flying the flag of that Member State fishing in the north-east Atlantic.
The nominal catch data shall include all fishery products landed or transhipped at sea in no matter what form but shall exclude quantities which, subsequent to capture, are discarded at sea, consumed on board or used as bait on board. Aquaculture production shall be excluded. The data shall be recorded as the live weight equivalent of the landings or transhipments, to the nearest tonne.
Article 2
1. The data to be submitted shall be the nominal catches of each of the species listed in Annex I in each of the statistical fishing regions listed in Annex II and defined in Annex III.
2. The data for each calendar year shall be submitted within six months of the end of the year. No submissions shall be required for species/fishing region combinations for which no catches were recorded in the annual period of the submission. The data for species of minor importance in a Member State need not be individually identified in the submissions but may be included in an aggregated item provided that the weight of the products thus recorded does not exceed 10 % by weight of the total catch in that Member State in that month.
3. The Commission may amend the lists of species and statistical fishing regions, the descriptions of those fishing regions and the permitted degree of aggregation of data.
Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 5(2).
Article 3
Except where provisions adopted under the common fisheries policy dictate otherwise, a Member State shall be permitted to use sampling techniques to derive catch data for those parts of the fishing fleet for which the complete coverage of the data would involve the excessive application of administrative procedures. The details of the sampling procedures, together with details of the proportion of the total data derived by such techniques, must be included by the Member State in the report submitted pursuant to Article 6(1).
Article 4
Member States shall fulfil their obligations to the Commission pursuant to Articles 1 and 2 by submitting the data on magnetic medium, the format of which is given in Annex IV.
Member States may submit data in the format detailed in Annex V.
With the prior approval of the Commission, Member States may submit data in a different form or on a different medium.
Article 5
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics, set up by Council Decision 72/279/EEC (8), hereinafter referred to as ‘the Committee’.
2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5a(1) to (4) and Article 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.
Article 6
1. By 1 January 1993 Member States shall submit a detailed report to the Commission describing how the data on catches are derived and specifying the degree of representativeness and reliability of those data. The Commission, in collaboration with the Member States, shall draw up a summary of those reports.
2. Member States shall inform the Commission of any modifications to the information provided under paragraph 1 within three months of their introduction.
3. Methodological reports, data availability and data reliability referred to in paragraph 1 and other relevant issues connected with the application of this Regulation shall be examined once a year within the competent Working Party of the Committee.
Article 7
1. Regulation (EEC) No 3880/91 is hereby repealed.
2. References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex VII.
Article 8
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Strasbourg, 11 March 2009.