1998D0130 — EN — 16.06.1999 — 001.001 — 1
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►B COMMISSION DECISION
of 16 December 1997
approving the multiannual guidance programme for the fishing fleet of Finland for the period
from 1 January 1997to 31 December 2001
(Only the Finnish text is authentic)
(98/130/EC)
(OJ L 39, 12.2.1998, p. 73)
Amended by:
Official Journal
Nopage date
►M1Commission Decision 1999/448/EC of 14 June 1999 L 175 68 10.7.1999
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COMMISSION DECISION
of 16 December 1997
approving the multiannual guidance programme for the fishing
fleet of Finland for the period from 1 January 1997to 31 December
2001
(Only the Finnish text is authentic)
(98/130/EC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 3699/93 of 21 December
1993 laying down the criteria and arrangements regarding Communitystructural assistance in the fisheries and aquaculture sector and theprocessing and marketing of its products(
1) as last amended by Regula-
tion (EC) No 25/97 (2), and in particular Articles 5 and 6 thereof,
Having regard to Council Decision 97/413/EC of 26 June 1997
concerning the objectives and detailed rules for restructuring theCommunity fisheries sector for the period from 1 January 1997 to 31December 2001 with a view toachieving a balance o n a sustainablebasis between resources and their exploitation(
3) and in particular
Article 9(1) thereof,
Whereas Decision 97/413/EC was adopted pursuant to the provisions of
Article 11 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3760/92 of 20 December1992 establishing a Community system for fisheries and aquaculture(
4),
as amended by the Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden;
Whereas Finland, hereinafter referred toas ‘the Member State', o n 27
June 1997, in accordance with Article 6(1) of Decision 97/413/EC,submitted to the Commission a fishing effort limitation programme forthe period from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2001, and has supple-mented this programme by further information at later dates; whereasArticle 9(1) of Decision 97/413/EC provides that the Commission shalladopt the multiannual guidance programmes (MAGP) for the fishingfleets of individual Member States no later than 30 November 1997;
Whereas Article 6(2) of Decision 97/413/EC provides that capacity
reductions shall be ensured by the establishment in each Member Stateof a permanent regime to control the renewal of the fleet, which willdetermine, segment by segment, the ratio of entries/exits of vessels;whereas the programmes submitted by Member States either contain noinformation on this issue whatsoever or are unsatisfactory; whereasMember States should therefore communicate the necessary informationto the Commission at a later stage;
Whereas Article 7(1) of Decision 97/413/EC provides that the starting
point for the objectives fixed for the fishing fleets for 31 December2001 shall be the fleet objectives fixed by the previous programme for31 December 1996;
Whereas the objectives fixed by the previous programme should be
adjusted in cases where this is justified by new information supplied bythe Member State concerned;
Whereas, pursuant to Article 7(2) of Decision 97/413/EC, the particular
situation of the fleet of each Member State concerned must be takeninto account in fixing the objectives applicable to that fleet;
Whereas Decision 97/413/EC, and in particular Article 9(1) thereof,
requires the fixing of annual intermediate targets; whereas since a largepart of the first year of the period covered by the programmes will have
(1) OJ L 346, 31.12.1993, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 6, 10.1.1997, p. 7.
(3) OJ L 175, 3.7.1997, p. 27.
(4) OJ L 389, 31.12.1992, p. 1.
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elapsed at the time of the adoption of the present Decision it is not
appropriate to set an intermediate objective for 1997;
Whereas, pursuant to Article 9(1) of Decision 97/413/EC, the Commis-
sion shall adopt the detailed rules for the implementation of thatDecision; whereas it is useful to clarify certain concepts;
Whereas the starting point for calculating the intermediate and final
fleet objectives under MAGP IV are the fleet objectives fixed by theprevious programmes for 31 December 1996 (MAGP III); whereas thetonnage objectives set by MAGP III were expressed in gross registeredtonnes (GRT), but the MAGP IV objectives must be expressed in unitsof gross tonnes (GT); whereas not all Member States have submittedGT values for all fishing vessels of the fleet concerned notwithstandingtheir obligation to measure or estimate the GT of all vessels in theirfleet, and to transmit this information to the Commission;
Whereas, in those circumstances, the Commission must, using a prac-
tical approach, estimate the missing GT values in order to provisionallydetermine that Member State’s MAGP IV intermediate and final objec-tives on the basis of those estimates;
Whereas however the Commission cannot accept any claims by
Member States that fishing effort and/or capacity has been reduced in asfar as they relate to vessels for which the Member State concerned hasnot fulfilled its obligation to transmit at GT value or estimate to theCommission, since the exact amount of that reduction is not verifiable;
Whereas, in the absence of the required GT tonnage values measured or
estimated in accordance with the provisions of Council Regulation (EC)No 2930/86 of 22 September 1986 defining the characteristics of fishingvessels(
1), as amended by Regulation (EC) No 3259/94 (2) and imple-
mented by Commission Decision 95/84/EC (3), the Commission will be
unable toverify the percentage changes in the fleet capacity o r fishingeffort represented by changes in the capacity or activity of individualvessels, or by vessel entries or exits to and from the fleet; whereas theCommission will therefore have to assess whether the fishing effortreductions applied to vessels for which the required GT values areavailable have been sufficient tobe almo st certain that a Member Statehas reached its MAGP IV objectives;
Whereas, since the starting point for the MAGP IV objectives are the
final MAGP III objectives, a Member State cannot be deemed to havereached either intermediate or final MAGP IV objectives until it hasfulfilled its obligations under MAGP III, and in particular the obligationto reach at least 55 % of the MAGP III obligations by reductions incapacity,
Whereas the segmentation of the fleet must take into account the
segmentation adopted by the previous programme;
Whereas in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 109/94 of
19 January 1994 concerning the Community register of fishingvessels(
4), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 493/96 (5), each
Member State must communicate all changes to the situation of thefishing fleet and the evolution of fishing effort by fishery;
Whereas the calculation of the objectives of the programme is based on
information supplied by the Member State; whereas it may be necessaryto revise the objectives if this information is later found to have beeninaccurate;
Whereas the measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance
with the opinion of the Management Committee for Fisheries andAquaculture,
(1) OJ L 274, 25.9.1986, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 339, 29.12.1994, p. 11.
(3) OJ L 67, 25.3.1995, p. 33.
(4) OJ L 19, 22.1.1994, p. 5.
(5) OJ L 72, 21.3.1996, p. 12.
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HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
The multiannual guidance programme for the fishing fleet of Finland
for the period 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2001, as forwarded on 27June 1997 and subsequently supplemented, is hereby approved, subjectto the conditions laid down in this Decision and the Annex thereto.
Article 2
The Member State shall ensure that any reductions in capacity or
fishing effort that are required to meet the final objectives of theprogramme are achieved progressively. To this end intermediate objec-tives are set such that at least one quarter of the reductions are achievedby 31 December 1998, half of the reductions are achieved by 31December 1999 and three-quarters of the reductions are achieved by 31December 2000.
In order to ensure that the final and intermediate objectives of the
programme will be met, the Member State shall communicate to theCommission for approval the regime of entries/exits of vessels referredto in Article 6(2) of Decision 97/413/EC.
Article 3
1. The following units shall be used to measure whether the final and
intermediate MAGP IV objectives have been met:
(i) the capacity of a vessel is measured both in terms of its tonnage
expressed in gross tonnes (GT) and in terms of its power measuredin kW according to the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 2930/86;
(ii) the fishing activity of a vessel is measured in days at sea in
accordance with Annex VI to Regulation (EC) No 109/94;
(iii) in accordance with Annex VI to Regulation (EC) No 109/94 the
fishing effort of a vessel is measured both as tonnage effort,defined as the product of its activity and its tonnage expressed inGT, and as power effort, defined as the product of its activity andits power expressed in kW.
2. Active and passive gears correspond to the lists of towed and
static gears respectively in Annex I, Table 2 toRegulatio n (EC) No109/94, with the exception of purse seines which are considered to beactive gears for the purposes of the present Decision.
3. Fleet segments and, if applicable, fisheries are defined as shown in
the Annex and in accordance with point 1 of the additional provisionsthereof.
Article 4
1. Until such time as a Member State has fulfilled its obligations
pursuant toRegulatio n (EEC) No2930/86 tosubmit a measured o r dulyestimated GT value of a vessel, for the purposes of MAGP IV, the GTof that vessel shall be estimated by the Commission as being equivalentto the tonnage of that vessel expressed in GRT.
2. Any fishing effort reduction, including capacity reductions,
claimed by a Member State shall not be taken into account by theCommission unless the Member State has fulfilled its obligationpursuant toRegulatio n (EEC) No2930/86 tofurnish the Co mmissio nwith the GT value or estimate of the vessel concerned.
3. If a Member State has not transmitted all the values or estimates
of GT required pursuant to Regulation (EEC) No 2930/86 necessary inorder to determine whether that Member State has reached an inter-mediate or final objective, the Commission will assess whether theinformation on tonnage that has been supplied to it is neverthelesssufficient toassume that the Member State co ncerned has reached thatobjective. If the Commission concludes that this is the case, it shallconsider that the conditions for granting modernisation and construction
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aid laid down in Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 3699/93 have beenfulfilled.
Article 5
As long as a Member State has not fulfilled its global final obligations
under MAGP III, and notably the obligation to achieve at least 55 % ofthe reduction objectives under MAGP III by capacity reductions, it shallbe deemed not to have fulfilled its global intermediate and/or finalobligations under MAGP IV.
Article 6
In order to monitor and control the implementation of the programme,
the Member States shall communicate all changes to the situation of thefishing fleet and the evolution of fishing effort by fishery according tothe procedures laid down in Regulation (EC) No 109/94.
The annual communication from the Commission to the Council and to
the European Parliament on the progress of the MAGP IV provided forin Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 3699/93, shall be based on theinformation contained in the fishing vessel register of the Communityand may incorporate additional information contained in the reportscommunicated by the Member States in accordance with Article 6 ofRegulation (EC) No 3699/93.
Article 7
The objectives of the programme are indicated in the Annex. These
objectives may be revised by the Commission, pursuant to the proce-dure laid down in Article 18 of Regulation (EEC) No 3760/92, when-ever information gathered in order to calculate the objectives, notablyconcerning the composition of the catches by segment or by fishery, thestarting levels of effort and the GT values or estimates, is found to havebeen inaccurate.
Article 8
This Decision is addressed to the Republic of Finland.It shall enter into force from 1 January 1997.
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ANNEX
MULTIANNUAL GUIDANCE PROGRAMME FOR THE FISHING
FLEET OF FINLAND FOR THE PERIOD 1997TO 2001
I. TABLES OF OBJECTIVES
The tables specifying the applicable reduction objectives can be found at the end
of this Annex.
II. ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS
1.Identification of segments and fisheries
Segments of the fleet are defined in accordance with Article 1(4) and 4 of
Decision 97/413/EC. One or more fisheries may be identified withinsegments using active gears.
Objectives fixed in terms of fishing effort by fishery are valid provided that
the measures to limit fishing effort described in the programme submittedpursuant to Article 6 of Decision 97/413/EC, as approved by the Commis-sion, are respected.
The objectives fixed must be attained for each of the segments and where
applicable for each of the fisheries by the end of the programme.
Each segment of the fleet is allocated a code number by which the segment
to which any vessel belongs is recorded in the fishing vessel register of theCommunity. All changes to the allocation of vessels to segments must becommunicated according to the procedures of Regulation (EC) No 109/94.
2.Conversion of tonnage objectives from units of GRT to units of GT
The objectives of the MAGP III fixed for 31 December 1996 serve as the
starting point for the calculation of the objectives of MAGP IV. Thetonnage objectives for the MAGP III are converted from units of grossregistered tonnes (GRT) to units of GT by the application of the followingformula to each of the fleet segments or applicable subdivisions of the fleetsegments of MAGP III:
Objective for 31 December 1996 (GT) =
objective for 31 December 1996 (GRT) ×Situation at 31 December
1996 (GT)
Situation at 31 December1996 (GRT)
where the situation at 31 December 1996 in GRT incorporates, where
necessary, calculations made in accordance with Commission Decision 97/259/EC (
1).
3.Calculation of the objectives
The objectives are expressed in terms of tonnage in GT and power as
defined in Regulation (EEC) No 2930/86 in kW.
3.1.Objectives by segment
Where a segment comprising small coastal vessels has been identified in
accordance with Article 3 of Decision 97/413/EC, the objectives fixed bythe MAGP IV are tostabilise capacity at its level at 1 January 1997 o r, atthe choice of the Member State, to limit capacity to a level corresponding tothe objectives of the MAGP III for this segment.
The capacity objectives for 31 December 2001 for all other segments are
calculated by applying the appropriate reduction rate to the capacity objec-tives by segment for 31 December 1996 fixed by the MAGP III. If thevessels in one or more segments of the MAGP III are redistributed into oneor more segments of the MAGP IV, the sum of the objectives for 31December 1996 of the MAGP III segments concerned gives the sum of theobjectives for 31 December 1996 of the new MAGP IV segments socreated. The objectives of the MAGP IV segments for 31 December 1996are calculated by partitioning this sum among the MAGP IV segmentsaccording to the size of those segments at 31 December 1996.
(1) OJ L 104, 22.4.1997, p. 28.
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The reduction rate applied to each segment is calculated according to the
method described in Annex II to Decision 97/413/EC, in which the pilotreduction rate for the segment is multiplied by the proportion of the catch inweight of the segment that is made up of critical stocks.
3.2.Objectives by fishery
Where distinct fisheries have been identified in one or more segments, and
where the programme for the limitation of fishing effort in each of thesefisheries submitted in accordance with Article 6 of Decision 97/413/EC hasbeen approved by the Commission, distinct effort reduction rates are calcu-lated for each of the fisheries. The method of calculation of the reductionrate in each fishery is identical to that for capacity reductions by segment.
The effort objectives by fishery are calculated by applying the appropriate
reduction rate to the baseline level of effort for that fishery. The baselinelevels of effort for the fisheries in a segment are calculated by partitioningthe effort objective for the segment for 31 December 1996 among thefisheries. The effort objective for the segment is given by the product of thecapacity objective of the segment for 31 December 1996 and mean activityof vessels in the segment over the reference period agreed with theCommission. The proportion of the effort objective for the segment allo-cated toeach fishery is decided by the Member State subject toappro val bythe Commission, and is fixed for the duration of the programme.
Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 4 and 5 of the present
Decision, the intermediate objectives expressed in terms of fishing effortwill be deemed to have been met if the cumulative fishing effort from thestart of the programme to the date of the intermediate objective is equal toor less than the cumulative fishing effort that would have been exerted if allthe annual intermediate objectives had been met exactly.
Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 4 and 5 of the present
Decision, the final objectives expressed in terms of fishing effort will bedeemed to have been met if the cumulative fishing effort over the period ofthe programme is equal to or less than the cumulative fishing effort thatwould have been exerted if all the annual objectives had been met exactly.
3.3.Authorisedad justments to the objectives
Member States may at any time submit to the Commission a programme of
safety improvements. In accordance with Articles 3 and 4 of Decision97/413/EC the Commission will decide whether any capacity increase fore-seen by such a programme justifies a corresponding increase in the objec-tives of the MAGP IV.
Where a Member State implements technical measures that result in a
reduction in the by-catch of critical stocks, the Commission will, at therequest of that Member State, determine whether these measures justify arevision of the weighted reduction rates applicable to the segments orfisheries concerned.
The Decisions of the Commission concerning the provisions of this para-
graph will be taken according to the procedures of Article 18 of Regulation(EEC) No3760/92.
3.4.Backlog from the previous programme
Where the objectives for 31 December 1996 have not been achieved, the
backlog in a given segment can be made up by a mixture of capacity andactivity reductions, provided that a programme for the reduction of effort issubmitted to the Commission for approval in accordance with Article 4 ofRegulation (EC) No 109/94 and provided that at least 55 % of the backlogfor all segments combined is made up by capacity reductions. The reduc-tions in activity resulting from such a programme have been taken intoaccount in order to establish the baseline activity levels for MAGP IV.
4.Implementation and monitoring
The implementation of the measures to reduce fishing effort for certain
segments of fleet require that evidence is given to the Commission by theMember State that the following are available for each of the segmentsconcerned:
— data concerning activity levels before the entry into force of the meas-
ures,
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— effective tools to manage time at sea, and an ability to manage fishing
licence schemes,
— data making it possible to follow the effect of the measures imple-
mented. These effects have to be controllable by the Commission, inaccordance with the provisions of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2847/93 (
1) relating to control.
(1) OJ L 261, 20.10.1993, p. 1.
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WeightedSituation 1.1.1997 Objective 31.12.1996 Objective 31.12.2001
Area Stocks Segment Catch composition Pilot ratereductionGT (*) kW GT (*) kW GT (*) kW
Baltic, ICES III b c d Pelagic
salmonSmall scale coastal
vessels<12 m,
fykenet, gillnet, pountnetBaltic herring salmonand other species 0% 0% 9 918 139 894 10 100 142 110 10 100 142 110
Subtotal 9 918 139 894 10 100 142 110 10 100 142 110
Baltic, ICES III b c d Pelagic Trawlers DR: 0 %OF: 0 %Others: 100 % 0% 0% 9 688 54 629 10 470 58 031 10 470 58 031
Baltic, ICES III b c d Demersal (1) Trawlers DR: 0 %OF: 100 %Others: 0 % 20 % 20,0 % 731 2 100 731 2 100 585 1 680
Baltic, ICES III b c d Salmon, demersal Passive gear, gillnet,longline Salmon andcod 100 % 30 % 30,0 % 3 030 21 100 3 246 22 590 2 272 15 813
Subtotal 13 449 77 829 14 447 82 721 13 327 75 524
Total 23 367 2177 23 24 547 224 831 23 427 217634
DR: Depletion risk.
OF: Overfished.
(*) Includes estimated GT values in accordance with Article 4 of the present Decision. The objectives will be revised as real GT values become availabl e.
(1) Taking into account the small number of vessels in this segment the Commission may review, following the procedures of Article 18 of Regulation (EEC) No 3760/92, the objectives for 2001 in the light of the development of the
Baltic cod stocks.