Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) introducing a scheme to compensate for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French department of Guiana as a result of those regions' remoteness (97/C 292/04) COM(97) 389 final - 97/0200(CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 22 July 1997)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

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

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Whereas a declaration on the outermost regions of the Community is annexed to the Treaty on the European Union;

Whereas the difficulties facing the fishery industry of the European Union are aggravated in particular by the cost of transporting fishery products to markets as a result of the remoteness and isolation of the outermost regions;

Whereas, as part of the community's policy to assist its outermost regions, by Decisions 89/687/EEC (1), 91/314/EEC (2) and 91/315/EEC (3) the Council has set up programmes of options specific to the remote and insular nature of the French overseas departments (Poseidom), the Canary Islands (Poseican) and Madeira and the Azores (Poseima) respectively, which outline the measures to be applied taking account of the special characteristics of and constraints on those regions;

Whereas measures of the same type already undertaken have proved successful;

Whereas the regions concerned are facing specific development problems and in particular additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain products as a result of their remoteness; whereas, with a view to maintaining the competitiveness of certain fishery products against similar products from other Community regions, the Community introduced measures in 1992 and 1993 to compensate for such additional costs in the fisheries sector, whereas those measures were followed up in 1994 and 1995 to 1997 by the adoption of Council Regulations (EC) No 1503/94 (4) and (EC) No 2337/95 (5); whereas the arrangements to compensate for the additional costs incurred in processing and marketing certain fishery products (tuna and demersal species in the Azores; tuna, black scabbardfish and mackerel in Madeira; tuna, sardines, mackerel, aquaculture products, cephalopods, sole and sea bream in the Canary Islands; shrimps in Guiana) should be continued from 1998 and provision must accordingly be made for the measures to be extended;

Whereas non-industrial and inshore fishing is important from the social and economic viewpoints in the outermost regions of the European Union;

Whereas fishing efforts must be rationalized for the sake of sound management of stocks and in particular in view of the research of a high technical standard conducted in this area by various scientific institutions in the outermost regions,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

A scheme is hereby introduced to compensate for the additional costs of marketing certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French department of Guiana as a result of the remoteness of those regions.

Article 2

1. In the case of the Azores, the scheme provided for in Article 1 shall entail payment of the following amounts:

(a) ECU 177 per tonne of tuna for up to 10 000 tonnes a year delivered to the local canning industry;

(b) ECU 455 per tonne of demersal species for up to 3 500 tonnes a year.

2. In the case of Madeira, the scheme provided for in Article 1 shall entail payment of the following amounts:

(a) ECU 184 per tonne of tuna for up to 50 000 tonnes a year delivered to the local canning industry;

(b) ECU 242 per tonne of black scabbardfish for up to 1 800 tonnes a year;

(c) ECU 116 per tonne of mackerel for up to 2 000 tonnes a year delivered to the local canning industry.

3. In the case of the Canary Islands, the scheme provided for in Article 1 shall entail payment of the following amounts:

(a) ECU 152 per tonne of tuna for marketing fresh for up to 10 400 tonnes a year;

(b) ECU 56 per tonne of frozen tuna for up to 3 500 tonnes a year;

(c) ECU 56 per tonne of sardines and mackerel for freezing for up to 7 500 tonnes a year;

(d) ECU 105 per tonne of sardines and mackerel for processing for up to 10 500 tonnes a year;

(e) ECU 563 per tonne of aquaculture products for up to 1 300 tonnes a year;

(f) ECU 110 per tonne of cephalopods, sole and sea bream for up to 25 000 tonnes a year.

4. In the case of Guina, the scheme provided for in Article 1 shall entail payment of ECU 1 102 per tonne of shrimps for up to 4 200 tonnes a year.

Article 3

The recipients of the compensation provided for herein shall be the producers, the owners of vessels registered in the ports of the regions mentioned in Article 1 and operating therein or associations thereof, and the processors, who incur the additional costs of marketing the products concerned as a result of the remoteness of those regions.

Article 4

Detailed rules for the application of this Regulation shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 32 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3759/92 of 17 December 1992 on the common organization of the market in fishery and aquaculture products (6).

Article 5

The measures provided for in this Regulation shall constitute intervention intended to stabilize the agricultural markets within the meaning of Article 3 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agricultural policy (7). They shall be financed by the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF).

Article 6

Every three years and for the first time on 1 January 2001, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of the measures provided for herein, together, where appropriate, with proposals for adjustments that prove necessary to achieve the objectives set out in Article 1.

Article 7

This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 1998.

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

(1) OJ L 399, 30. 12. 1989, p. 39.

(2) OJ L 171, 29. 6. 1991, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 171, 29. 6. 1991, p. 10.

(4) OJ L 162, 30. 6. 1994, p. 8.

(5) OJ L 236, 5. 10. 1995, p. 2.

(6) OJ L 388, 31. 12. 1992, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2939/94 (OJ L 310, 3. 12. 1994, p. 12).

(7) OJ L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 13. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1287/95 (OJ L 125, 8. 6. 1995, p. 1).