Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on 'The immediate measures which need to be taken to counter the damage caused by cormorants in the European regions` (97/C 215/09)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the decision which it took on 15 January 1997, in accordance with the fourth paragraph of Article 198c of the Treaty establishing the European Community, to issue an opinion on the immediate measures which need to be taken to counter the damage caused by cormorants in the European regions and its decision to instruct Commission 2 for Spatial Planning, Agriculture, Hunting, Fisheries, Forestry, Marine Environment and Upland Areas to prepare the opinion;

having regard to the draft Opinion (CdR 28/97 rev.) adopted by Commission 2 on 12 February 1997 (rapporteurs: Mr Bocklet, Mr Lafay and Mr Loos),

adopted the following opinion at its 17th plenary session, on 12 and 13 March 1997 (meeting of 13 March).

1. Background

1.1. Over the last few years there has been a very sharp increase in the breeding population of cormorants in the EU regions. The ecological balance has been jeopardized. The cormorant population in 1979 was approximately 30 000 but by 1995 it was estimated at 700 000. The main breeding grounds for cormorants are in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, northern Germany and Poland. Cormorants cause considerable damage to fishery eco-systems and to fisheries in the regions of the EU, in particular in areas of France, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Germany and Austria. Each cormorant consumes approximately 500 g of fish per day. In the course of their search for food cormorants also frequently injure fish which die later. Professional fishermen, owners of fishponds and fishermen's associations in the areas concerned throughout the EU are complaining about high losses. On 26 October 1996, some 40 000 fishermen staged a demonstration in Strasbourg against excessive protection of cormorants under the EU bird protection Directive.

1.2. As damage to fish stocks in the regions concerned is frequently caused by migrating or over-wintering cormorants, which breed in other states, a lasting solution to the cormorant problem would require intensive cooperation between EU Member States and regions. The European Parliament adopted a Resolution on the problem of cormorants in European fisheries in February 1996. In conjunction with the Netherlands, within the framework of the Bonn Convention (convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals), Denmark submitted a basic report on cormorants in May 1996. On the basis of this report, a Danish-Netherlands project group was mandated, in Lelystadt (Netherlands) on 3-4 October 1996, to draft an international action plan to reduce damage to fisheries, in conjunction with fisheries experts and ornithologists from the various states concerned. This draft is to be submitted for decision to the next meeting of the signatory states to the Bonn Convention to be held in Geneva in April 1997. This means that it will not be possible to take internationally coordinated measures in respect of the spring 1997 breeding season. The EC Commission, too, does not consider that there has so far been sufficient pressure for changes to be made to the EC bird protection Directive 79/409/EEC () and for cormorants to be removed, at least temporarily, from the highest protection level.

1.3. The Committee of the Regions, which is in close contact with citizens and is a representative of both animal protection bodies and the EU fishermen who have suffered damage, therefore has a duty to seek to bring about the introduction of immediate measures and the adoption of an international action plan at European level.

2. The Committee of the Regions

points out that:

- the over twentyfold increase in the cormorant population in the last two decades is jeopardizing the ecological balance and, above all, causing a considerable loss of income for commercial fisheries;

and calls for:

- the Member States and regions to avail themselves of the possibility of taking appropriate immediate measures as early as the spring 1997 breeding season to make full use of the derogations provided for in Article 9 of the Directive on bird protection;

- the draft action plan, which is to be submitted to the next meeting of the signatory states to the Bonn Convention (to be held in Geneva in April 1997) to be forwarded to the states concerned without delay;

- the Commission to initiate the procedure for updating Annex I to the EU Directive 79/409/EEC on bird protection and to examine whether cormorants can be included in Annex II.

Brussels, 13 March 1997.

The Chairman of the Committee of the Regions

Pasqual MARAGALL i MIRA

() OJ No L 103, 25. 4. 1979, p. 1.