Brussels, 14.12.2004

COM(2004) 799 final

ANNUAL REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

on Member States’ efforts during 2003 to achieve a sustainable balance between fishing capacity and fishing opportunities

{SEC (2004) 1559}

Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Fleet Management in the reformed Common Fisheries Policy 3

3. Community Fishing Fleet Register 5

4. Summary of Member States’ annual reports 5

5. Conclusions from the Commission 6

Technical Annex-results by Member State 8

BELGIUM 10

GERMANY 12

DENMARK 14

SPAIN… 16

FINLAND 18

FRANCE 20

UNITED KINGDOM 22

GREECE 24

IRELAND 27

ITALY… 28

NETHERLANDS 30

PORTUGAL 32

SWEDEN 34

1 . INTRODUCTION

Article 14 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002[1] and Article 12 of Commission Regulation 1438/2003[2] requires Member States to submit to the Commission, before 1 May each year, a report on their efforts during the previous year to achieve a sustainable balance between fleet capacity and available fishing opportunities. On the basis of these reports and the data in the Community Fishing Fleet Register[3] the Commission produced for the year 2003 a summary which was presented to the ‘Scientific Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries’ (STECF) and the ‘Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture’. In this report the Commission now presents that summary, accompanied by the opinions of the above-mentioned committees, to the Council and the European Parliament.

This report is divided into two parts:

- The first part describes the rules that must be followed by Member States in managing their fleets and summarises the information submitted according to Article 13 of Commission Regulation 1438/2003 on implementing rules for fleet policy;

- The second part shows the development of Member States’ fleets’ capacities in 2003 in the form of numeric tables containing the relevant information on the entries and exits of vessels for each national fleet.

Note: The fleets of new Member States that joined the European Union at 1 May 2004 are not covered by this report as they were not subject to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in 2003.

2. FLEET MANAGEMENT IN THE REFORMED COMMON FISHERIES POLICY

FOLLOWING THE REFORM OF THE CFP ADOPTED IN DECEMBER 2002, THE MANAGEMENT OF FISHING FLEETS HAS CHANGED: the Multi-Annual Guidance Programmes (MAGP) with fleet segmentation and capacity and/or effort ceilings by fleet segment have been replaced by the general rule that new capacity, expressed in terms of tonnage and power, introduced into the fleet cannot be higher than capacity withdrawn from it.

a) Entry/Exit regime

From 1 January 2003 Member States have had to respect a strict entry-exit regime applying to the capacity of their fleets, measured in terms of both tonnage and power. Any entry of capacity into the fleet of a Member State has to be compensated by the previous exit of at least the same amount of capacity (ratio 1:1, “at any time”), unless the entry corresponds to works to improve safety, hygiene or living and working conditions on board (Article 11(5) of Council Regulation 2371/2002). For entries of new vessels between 100 and 400 GT built with public aid (this is only possible until 31 December 2004) the Member State has to withdraw 35% more capacity than it introduces (ratio 1:1.35).

Another important rule is that capacity leaving the fleet with public aid cannot be replaced. Such capacity is subtracted directly from the fleet and also from the reference level established in accordance with Article 12 of Council Regulation 2371/2002, and it therefore counts against the entry/exit regime in the ratio 0:1. Capacity reductions supported with public aid are therefore definitive.

All of this means that, as a general rule, the capacity of the Member State’s fleets cannot increase with respect to its levels on 1 January 2003. In practice this is likely to be the case. However, the implementing rules for the fleet policy allow for the introduction of vessels outside the framework of the entry/exit regime in the case where decisions have been made by the national authorities between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2002 for those vessels to enter the fleet after 1 January 2003. These entries have to take place at the most 3 years after the date of the administrative decision (i.e. at the latest by the end of 2005) and must comply with the rules that existed at that time, in particular Article 9 of the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG).

b) Reference Levels

The reference levels for the fleets of Member States are the sum of the global final objectives of MAGP IV as established by Article 12 of Council Regulation 2371/2002. France, Portugal and Spain have a specific reference level for their mainland fleet and a separate one for their fleets registered in the outermost regions, for which different rules apply (Council Regulation 639/2004)[4]. Member States may not exceed their reference levels at any time.

When a Member State undertakes decommissioning with public aid, these reference levels are automatically reduced by the amount of capacity scrapped. In addition, Member States who give aid to construction of vessels will see their initial 2003 reference level reduced by 3% by the end of 2004. Since most Member States were already well below this reference level at the beginning of 2003 its impact is not very significant. Compliance with this rule will, however, be assessed in the annual report for 2004.

Since the reference levels are a legacy of MAGP IV (period 1997-2002), the Council decided that they would not apply to the Member States that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 (Commission Regulation 916/2004)[5].

c) Remeasurement of tonnage

The remeasurement of the Community fleet is based on Council Regulation (EC) No 3259/94[6] and Commission Decision 95/84/EC[7]. The aim is to apply tonnage measurement according to the London Convention to the entire European fleet, requiring, as a consequence, that all fishing vessels should be measured in GT.

The fleet should have been entirely remeasured by December 2003 for vessels between 15 and 24 m, and earlier for vessels greater than 24 m (1994) or less than 15 m (1998).

The reference levels defined on the basis of Article 12 of Regulation (EC) 2371/2002 must take into account the fact that the remeasurement process is not finished yet for a number of Member States. In cases where the remeasurement of the fleet has not been completed the tonnage figures used in this report are a mixture of GT and GRT.

3. COMMUNITY FISHING FLEET REGISTER

THE MAIN TOOL FOR MONITORING THE FISHING FLEET IS THE COMMUNITY FISHING FLEET REGISTER (CFR). Member States are obliged to transmit all relevant information on the characteristics of approximately 90,000 marine fishing vessels, together with information on entries to and exits from the fleet. All information contained in the tables in the annex has been taken from the CFR, with the exception of:

- data on entries corresponding to administrative decisions taken by national authorities before 2003 for which either the corresponding exits had taken place before 2003 (GT1 / kW1 and GT3 / kW3) or which were subject to a higher entry/exit ratio (GT2 / kW2 and GT4 / kW4), in table a, and;

- data on entries with public aid.

Only in these two cases the information has been taken directly from the Member States.

4. SUMMARY OF MEMBER STATES’ ANNUAL REPORTS

a) Description of the fleets in relation to the state of fisheries

In 2003, following the steady trend of recent years, all Member States have reduced the capacity of their fleets, mainly as a result of national decommissioning schemes. Decommissioning schemes are often linked to restrictions imposed by a Community recovery plan, such as for Denmark, United Kingdom or Spain (Cod recovery plan, NAFO recovery plan for Greenland halibut) or by current Community rules on capacity, as for France and Belgium (i.e. Reference Levels).

b) Impact of effort reduction schemes on capacity

It has mainly been the fleets of northern Member States that have so far been affected by effort reduction measures as a result of the introduction of cod recovery measures. Almost all Member States, however, report that the downward trend in fleet size is in particular due to the poor state of certain stocks (such as cod in the North and Baltic Seas, sole and plaice in the North Sea, herring in the Baltic Sea).

c) Strengths and Weaknesses

Most Member States have considered 2003 as a transitional year in which they had to adapt to the new regime on fleet management. The fact that the segments of MAGP IV were abandoned under the new Regulation caused some organisational and/or informatics difficulties for some Member States. While most have welcomed the new regime - widely considering it as a substantial simplification - some Member States have decided to keep the old segmentation for internal management purposes.

Some Member States stressed that because of limited human resources they have failed to meet the official deadlines in implementing and reporting according to the new Commission Regulation 1438/2003. However the situation is now improving as the Member States adapt to the new system.

Several Member States pointed out that the entry/exit regime alone was not a major contributor to an overall fleet capacity reduction. Furthermore, even when respecting the overall requirements (reference levels, entry/exit regime, the reduction of 3% for aid commitments for fleet renewal), some Member States doubted that this reduction would lead to a long-term balance between fleet capacity and available fishing opportunities (e.g. technological progress is not taken into account).

d) Compliance with the entry/exit regime and with levels of reference

Compliance at the end of 2003 with the entry/exit regime and with reference levels is described in the summary tables 1 and 2 and in the Technical Annex by application of the formulae fixed in Commission Regulation (EC) 1438/2003 to each Member State’s fleet.

5. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE COMMISSION

In 2003 the overall capacity of the Community fleet was reduced by 40.362 GT and 142.727 kW, which represents a reduction of 2 % of the total capacity of the Community fleet. 44 % of the capacity withdrawals from the fleet were supported by public aid which means that this capacity cannot be replaced.

It was not possible to fully assess whether Member States have complied with the entry/exit “at any time” rule because the necessary adaptation of the fleet register only became operational on 1 September 2004. As stated under section 3 on page 5 of this report, the data relating to entries in 2003 based on decisions taken before 1 January 2003 was submitted by the Member States separately and could not be directly verified in the Community fishing fleet register. The Commission will continue to control these data in order to assess their quality. The information on how Member States have complied with the “at any time” rule and on the exact application of the 1:1,35 ratio for publicly assisted entries of vessels between 100 GT and 400 GT will be made available in future reports.

The following tables summarise compliance, at 31 December 2003, with the entry/exit regime and the reference levels. A majority of Member States have complied with these rules. However, Belgium and Italy do not comply with the tonnage ceiling and Italy does not comply with the engine power ceiling. In addition, Belgium does not comply with the reference level in tonnage.

The Italian authorities contest these conclusions and argue that the Italian fleet has respected the entry-exit provisions. In order to support this claim they have lately submitted additional information, not included in the CFR, which the Commission services are now analysing.

As explained above, this report is primarily based on data extracted from the CFR, except where these data were not yet available. Discrepancies remain between the data presented by Member States in their reports and those resulting from their declarations to the CFR. These discrepancies should be eliminated in the next annual report of the Commission, once the new CFR is fully operational. The data presented by MS in their national reports do not modify the conclusions of the report, except potentially in the case of Italy as explained above.

According to Article 16 of Council Regulation 2371/2002, those Member States that do not comply with the Articles 11, 13 and 15 of this Regulation shall be obliged to reduce their fishing effort to a level which would have existed if they had complied with the above mentioned articles. Furthermore they may be subject to a proportionate suspension of the Community financial assistance under the FIFG.

Table 1: Compliance with Entry/Exit ceilings at 31 December 2003

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BOLD ITALIC INDICATES THAT THE CEILING HAS BEEN EXCEEDED

Table 2: Compliance with Reference level at 31 December 2003

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BOLD ITALIC INDICATES THAT THE REFERENCE LEVEL HAS NOT BEEN RESPECTED.

TECHNICAL ANNEX - RESULTS BY MEMBER STATE

The following tables summarise the developments of the Member States’ fleets in relation to t heir compliance with two levels:

- the entry/exit level; the levels of reference.

A comparison between these levels and the situation of the fleet on 1 January 2003 (“baselines”) has been made based on data collected from the Community Fleet Register as registered on 24th August 2004 and on data from the national reports. For each Member State’s fleet the following tables are shown:

Table a) - Calculation of baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

The baselines against which entries and exits over 2003 must be assessed are:

- the capacity identified in the Community Fishing Fleet Register at 1 January 2003,

- plus the capacity entered into the fleet in 2003 based on administrative decisions taken by the national authorities between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2002, for which an associated capacity had been withdrawn before 1 January 2003 (GT1 and kW1 for entries with aid, GT3 and kW3 for entries without aid),

- minus 35% of the capacity entered into the fleet in 2003 with public aid based on an administrative decision taken by the national authorities between 1 January 2002 and 30 June 2002 concerning an MAGP IV segment that did not comply with its objectives, for which an associated capacity withdrawal took place in 2003 (GT2 or kW2),

- minus 30% of the capacity entered into the fleet in 2003 with public aid based on an administrative decision taken between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2001 concerning an MAGP IV segment that did not comply with its objectives, for which an associated capacity withdrawal took place in 2003 (GT4 or kW4).

According to Article 6 of Commission Regulation (EC) 1438/2003, the corresponding equations are:

GT03 = GTFR + GT1 – 0,35 GT2 + GT3 – 0,30 GT4

kW03 = kWFR + kW1 – 0,35 kW2 + kW3 – 0,30 kW4

Table b) - Management of entries and exits during 2003

Table b shows Member States’ compliance, in 2003, with the following formulae (Article 7 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1438/2003):

GTt ≤ GT03 - GTa – 0,35 GT100 + GTS + Δ(GT-GRT)

kWt ≤ kW03 - kWa – 0,35 kW100

where:

- GTt or kWt = the size in tonnage and power of the Member State’s fleet at 31 December 2003,

- GT03 or kW03 : see table a) above;

- GTa or kWa =capacities leaving the fleet with public aid after 31 December 2002;

- GT100 or kW100 =capacities of vessels more than 100 GT entering the fleet with public aid;

- GTS =safety tonnage granted under provisions of Article 11(5) of Regulation 2371/2002;

- Δ(GT-GRT) = balance as a result of the re-measurement of the fleet. This term is included in the value of the terms GTt and GT03. This has been done in this way because of the difficulties found in order to calculate it, arising form the incorrect declaration of vessel re-measuring to the Community Fleet Register.

Table c) - Management of reference levels during 2003

- The baselines are the sum of the MAGP IV objectives for the mainland fleets in GT and kW. The reference levels at 1 January 2003, (R(GT03 andR(kW03), are fixed in annex I to Commission Regulation(EC) No 1438/2003. Specific reference levels have been fixed for outermost regions in an appropriate legal framework.

- Table c shows Member States’ compliance, during 2003, with the following formulae (Article 4 of R. 1438/2003):

R(GTt) = R(GT03) - GTa – 0,35 GT100 + GTS + ΔR(GT-GRT)

R(kWt) = R(kW03) - kWa – 0,35 kW100

where:

R(GTt) or R(kWt) = The reference level in tonnage and power for the Member State’s fleet at 31 December 2003;

The term ΔR(GT-GRT) has not been included. This will only be done once the reference levels are updated to take into account the effect of the re-measurement of the fleet.

BELGIUM

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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GERMANY

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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DENMARK

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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SPAIN (excluding the Canary Islands)

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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FINLAND

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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FRANCE (excluding the French Overseas Departments)

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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UNITED KINGDOM

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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GREECE

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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IRELAND

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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ITALY

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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NETHERLANDS

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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PORTUGAL (excluding the Azores and Madeira)

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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SWEDEN

a) Calculation of the baselines (GT 03 and kW 03 ) at 31 December 2003

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b) Management of entry/exit regime during 2003

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c) Management of reference levels during 2003

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[1] Council Regulation 2371/2002 (OJ L 358 of 31 December 2002, p.59-80)

[2] Commission Regulation 1438/2003 (OJ L 204 of 13 August 2003, p.21-28)

[3] Commission Regulation 26/2004 (OJ L 5 of 9 January 2004, p.25-35)

[4] Council Regulation 639/2004 (OJ L 102 of 7 April 2004, p.9-11)

[5] OJ L 163, 30.4.2004, p 81

[6] OJ L 339, 29.12.1994, p. 11

[7] OJ L 67, 25.3.1995, p. 33