Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in certain areas other than those of the North Atlantic (94/C 329/01) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(94) 376 final - 94/0198 (CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 12 September 1994)

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 Agreement whereby the European Community acquires membership of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),

Whereas the Protocol established between the Council of the European Union and the Commission of the European Communities provides for the Commission to supply FAO with the requested statistics;

Whereas according to the principle of subsidiarity the objectives of the proposed action can only be achieved on the basis of a Community legal act because only the Commission can coordinate the necessary harmonization of the statistical information at Community level while the collection of fishery statistics and the necessary infrastructure to process and monitor the reliability of these statistics is first and foremost the reponsibility of the Member States;

Whereas the specific method of drawing up the relevant Community statistics, which is based on the national statistical systems, requires particularly close cooperation between the Commission and the Member States, in particular within the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics set up in Decision 72/279/EEC (1),

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Each Member State shall submit to the Commission data on the nominal catches by vessels registered in or flying the flag of that Member State fishing in certain areas other than those of the North Atlantic, with due regard to Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (2).

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. The data shall be recorded as the live weight equivalent of the landings or transhipment, to the nearest tonne.

Article 2

1. The data to be submitted shall be the nominal catches in each of the major fishing areas and subdivisions thereof as listed in Annex 1, described in Annex 2 and illustrated in Annex 3. For each of the major fishing areas the species for which data are required are listed in Annex 4.

2. The data for each calendar year shall be submitted within six months of the end of the year.

3. Where the Member State's vessels under Article 1 have not fished in a major fishing area in the calendar year, the Member State shall inform the Commission to this effect. However, where fishing has occurred in a major fishing area, submissions shall only be required for species/subdivision combinations for which catches were recorded in the annual period of the submission.

4. The data for species of minor importance caught by the vessels of a Member State need not be individually identified in the submissions but may be included in an aggregated item provided that the weight of the products does not exceed 5 % of the total annual catch in that major fishing area.

5. The lists of statistical fishing areas, or subdivisions thereof, and species 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 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 pursuant to Articles 1 and 2 by submitting the data on magnetic medium, the format of which is given in Annex 5.

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

Article 5

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 the Commission describing how the data on catches are derived and specifying the degree of representativity and reliability of these data. The Commission shall draw up a summary of these reports for discussion within the competent working group of the Agricultural Statistics Committee.

2. Member States shall inform the Commission of any modifications of 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, the Commission may, in cooperation with the Member State within the Standing Committee on Agricultural Statistics, 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 within the application of this Regulation shall be examined once a year within the competent working group 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.

This Regulation shall be binding from 1 January 1995.

(1) OJ No L 179, 7. 8. 1972, p. 1.

(2) OJ No L 151, 15. 6. 1990, p. 1.

ANNEX 1

LIST OF THE FAO MAJOR FISHING AREAS AND SUBDIVISIONS THEREOF FOR WHICH DATA ARE TO BE SUBMITTED

(The descriptions of these areas and subdivisions are to be found in Annex 2)

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ANNEX 2

EASTERN CENTRAL ATLANTIC (Major fishing area 34)

Annex 3A shows the boundaries and the sub-areas, divisions and subdivisions of the eastern central Atlantic (Major fishing area 34 (eastern central Atlantic)). A description of the area and its sub-areas, divisions and subdivisions follows. The eastern central Atlantic includes all the waters of the Atlantic bounded by a line drawn as follows:

from a point on the high-water mark of North Africa at 5°36' west longitude in a south-westerly direction following the high-water mark along this coast to a point at Ponta do Padrao (6°04'36″ south latitude and 12°19'48″ east longitude); thence along a rhumb line in a north-westerly direction to a point on 6°00' south latitude and 12°00' east longitude; thence due west along 6°00' south latitude to 20°00' west longitude; thence due north to the Equator; thence due west to 30°00' west longitude; thence due north to 5°00' north latitude; thence due west to 40°00' west longitude, thence due north to 36°00' north latitude; thence due east to Punta Marroqui at 5°36' west longitude; thence due south to the original point on the African coast.

The eastern central Atlantic is subdivided in the following way:

Northern coastal sub-area (Sub-area 34.1)

(a) Morocco coastal division (Division 34.1.1)

Waters lying between 36°00' north latitude and 26°00' north latitude, and east of a line drawn due south from 36°00' north latitude along 13°00' west longitude to 29°00' north latitude, and thence in south-westerly direction along a rhumb line to a point at 26°00' north latitude and 16°00' west longitude.

(b) Canaries/Madeira insular (Division 34.1.2)

Waters lying between 36°00' north latitude and 26°00' north latitude, and between 20°00' west longitude and a line drawn from 36°00' north latitude along 13°00' west longitude to 29°00' north latitude, and thence along a rhumb line to a point at 26°00' north latitude and 16°00' west longitude.

(c) Sahara coastal division (Division 34.1.3)

Waters lying between 26°00' north latitude and 19°00' north latitude and east of 20°00' west longitude.

Northern oceanic sub-area (Sub-area 34.2)

Waters lying between 36°00' north latitude and 10°00' north latitude and between 40°00' west longitude and 20°00' west longitude.

Southern coastal sub-area (Sub-area 34.3)

(a) Cape Verde coastal division (Division 34.3.1)

Waters lying between 19°00' and 9°00' north latitude, and east of 20°00' west longitude.

ANNEX 3

A: EASTERN CENTRAL ATLANTIC OCEAN (Major fishing area 34)

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B: MEDITERRANEAN AND BLACK SEA (Major fishing area 37)

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C: SOUTHWEST ATLANTIC (Major fishing area 41)

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B: MEDITERRANEAN AND BLACK SEA (Major fishing area 37)

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C: SOUTHWEST ATLANTIC (Major fishing area 41)

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B: MEDITERRANEAN AND BLACK SEA (Major fishing area 37)

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C: SOUTHWEST ATLANTIC (Major fishing area 41)

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D: SOUTHEAST ATLANTIC (Major fishing area 47 )

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E: WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN (Major fishing area 51)

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ANNEX 4

LIST OF SPECIES FOR WHICH DATA ARE TO BE SUBMITTED FOR EACH MAJOR FISHING AREA

The species listed below are those for which captures have been reported in the official statistics. Member States should submit data for each of the identified species if available. Where individual species cannot be identified the data should be aggregated and submitted in the item representing the highest degree of detail possible.

Note: n.e.i. = not elsewhere indicated.

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ANNEX 5

FORMAT FOR THE SUBMISSION OF CATCH DATA FOR REGIONS OTHER THAN THE NORTH ATLANTIC

Magnetic media

Computer tapes: Nine track with a density of 1 600 or 6 250 BPI and EBCDIC or ASCII coding, preferably unlabelled. If labelled, an end-of-file code should be included.

Floppy discs: MS-DOS formatted 3,5″ 720 K or 1,4 Mbyte discs or 5,25″ 360 K or 1,2 Mbyte discs.

Record format

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Notes:

(a) The catch field (bytes 19 to 26) should be right justified with leading blanks. All other fields should be left justified with trailing blanks.

(b) The catch should be recorded in the live weight equivalent of the landings, to the nearest metric tonne.

(c) Quantities (bytes 19 to 26) of less than half a unit should be recorded as ' 1`.

(d) Unknown quantities (bytes 19 to 26) should be recorded as ' 2`.