COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) N° 3881/91 of 17 December 1991 on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-west Atlantic

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 43 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee,

Whereas the management of the Community's fishery resources requires accurate and timely statistics on the catches by Member States' vessels fishing in the north-west Atlantic;

Whereas the Convention on future multilateral cooperation in the north-west Atlantic fisheries approved by Regulation (EEC) N° 3179/78 (3), and establishing the North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) requires the Community to furnish to the NAFO Scientific Council any available statistical and scientific information requested by the Scientific Council in the performance of its work;

Whereas the Convention for the conservation of salmon in the north Atlantic Ocean approved by Decision 82/886/EEC (4) and establishing the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (Nasco), requires the Community to supply that Organization with the available statistics that it may request;

Whereas there is a need for fuller definitions and descriptions used in fishery statistics and in the management of the fisheries of the north-west Atlantic,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Each Member State shall submit to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (hereinafter referred to as 'Eurostat`) data on the annual nominal catches by vessels registered in or flying the flag of that Member State fishing in the north-west 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. N° submissions shall be required for species/fishing region combinations for which no catches were recorded in the annual period of the submission.

3. The lists of species and statistical fishing regions and the descriptions of these fishing regions may be amended in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 5.

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.

With the prior approval of Eurostat, Member States may submit data in a different form or on a different medium.

Article 5

Where the procedure laid down in this Article is to be followed, the chairman shall refer the matter to the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics (hereinafter referred to as 'the Committee`), either on his own initiative or at the request of the representative of a Member State.

The representative of the Commission shall submit to the Committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The Committee shall deliver its opinion on that draft within a time limit which the chairman may lay down according to the urgency of the matter, if necessary by taking a vote.

The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in addition, each Member State shall have the right to ask to have its position recorded in the minutes.

The Commission shall take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by the Committee. It shall inform the Committee of the manner in which its opinion has been taken into account.

Article 6

1. Within 12 months of the entry into force of this Regulation, Member States shall submit a detailed report to Eurostat describing how the data on catches are derived and specifying the degree of representativity and reliability of these data. Eurostat, in collaboration with the Member States, shall draw up a summary of these reports.

2. Member States shall inform Eurostat of any modifications to the information provided under paragraph 1 within three months of their introduction.

3. Where the methodological reports under paragraph 1 show that a Member State cannot immediately meet the requirements of this Regulation and that changes in survey techniques and methodology are necessary, Eurostat may, in cooperation with the Member State, set a transitional period of up to two years during which the programme of this Regulation is to be achieved.

4. Methodological reports, transitional arrangements, data availability, data reliability and other relevant issues connected with the application of this Regulation shall be examined once a year within the competent Working Party of the Agricultural Statistics Committee.

Article 7

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

It shall apply from 1 January 1992.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 17 December 1991.

For the Council The President P. BUKMAN

(1) OJ N° C 230, 4. 9. 1991, p. 18.

(2) OJ N° C 280, 28. 10. 1991, p. 174.

(3) OJ N° L 378, 30. 12. 1978, p. 1.

(4) OJ N° L 378, 31. 12. 1982, p. 24.