WRITTEN QUESTION E-2154/01

by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(18 July 2001)

Subject: Regional fisheries organisations

In his answer to my Written Question E-1378/01(1), Mr Fischler pointed to the importance of regional fisheries organisations (RFOs), describing them as a key challenge for the future of the common fisheries policy, and said that the priority tasks would be for the Community to become more actively involved in the RFOs, exercising its exclusive powers, and for the recommendations which they adopted to be transposed into Community law.

Mr Fischler also announced that a unit had been set up to monitor RFOs as a whole (with the exception of certain organisations covering the north-west Atlantic) and that the Fisheries DG had been reorganised to enable it to respond more effectively to matters arising and to make for a more effective and coherent approach to Community involvement and participation in RFOs.

Could the Commission supply a complete list of recommendations and other measures adopted by RFOs which have already been transposed into Community law, as well as specifying any other measures that will be transposed? Could it indicate likewise the measures which have not yet been transposed and say why this has not happened?

Could the Commission give details of the operation, organisation, and make-up (human, technical, and financial resources) of the unit that will be called upon to monitor RFOs as a whole? Why have some north-west Atlantic RFOs been excluded from the unit's remit? Which particular RFOs have been thus left out of consideration?

Could the Commission give details of the final establishment plan of the Fisheries DG resulting from the reorganisation carried out?

(1) OJ C 350 E, 11.12.2001.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(5 September 2001)

The Commission could indeed provide a list of the different recommendations and conservation measures adopted by the regional fisheries organisations (RFOs), but it would certainly be quite hard to present, on such basis, the scope of their transposition into Community law. For example, there are about 60 recommendations and conservation measures adopted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Maríne Living Resources (CCAMLR), many of which require no transposition since they refer to authorisations to undertake exploratory fisheries to certain Parties, whereas others set forth limits or prohibition of catches, together with technical and/or control measures, all in the same text. Other RFOs adopt measures with similarly complex contents and in similarly high numbers. Most of these conservation measures relate to limits and prohibition of catches, and they are transposed into Community law every year in the framework of the total allowable catch (TAC) and Quotas exercise. Given the complexity that results from the multiple RFOs at work and their differing work methods for the adoption of conservation measures, measures, other than those implemented through TACs and quotas, are conventionally classified in three general domains with a view to their implementation: technical measures, control measures and measures establishing a system for tracking catches along the industrial and commercial chain.

It is possible to note, by looking at the directory of the Community legislation in force, that in relation to those RFOs that have adopted measures relating to these three subjects, the Community has itself adopted relevant transposition regulations. There are, in fact, Community regulations in force concerning control that implement NAFO(1), NEAFC(2) and CCAMLR measures, and the adoption of a control regulation for fisheries of highly migratory species is underway(3). Community regulations in the area of control will eventually integrate also the work carried out in the framework of ICCAT(4) and IOTC(5), with the active involvement of the Community. This will no doubt significantly facilitate the implementation of these two control schemes once they have been adopted by the said organisations.

With regard to technical regulations, the measures adopted by NAFO, NEAFC and CCAMLR have also been implemented by means of different texts. The same can be said in relation to highly migratory fish stocks, with the adoption this same year of Council Regulation (EC) No 973/2001 of 14 May 2001 laying down certain technical measures for the conservation of certain stocks of highly migratory species(6).

Finally, in the area of catch tracking, the Council has just adopted Regulation (EC) No 1035/2001 establishing a catch documentation scheme for Dissostichus spp(7). Also, the Commission will shortly present the Council with a proposal concerning the Tuna Tracking System applicable in the framework of the AIDCP(8).

The Commission must still, however, regard this process as a dynamic one, since today transposition involves updating and improvement of conservation measures much more than it does regulating new domains. Therefore, the Commission considers it necessary to review the implementation regulations of the CCAMLR measures, even though the implementing text was adopted

only three years ago (Regulation (EC) No 66/98(9)). Consequently, it intends to present the Council next Autumn with a joint proposal of two draft Regulations, one concerning control of fishing activities in the CCAMLR Convention area, and the other concerning technical measures applicable to the same fisheries.

Another domain where an update of the Community regulations seems in principle justified is the one relating to inspection and control of fisheries activities in the framework of the NAFO Convention(10). However, this organisation intends to embark on a complete overhaul of its control and inspection system in the near future. Therefore, and without excluding this possibility, it is necessary to carefully consider whether this is the right time to initiate proceedings for the updating of the relevant Community regulations.

With regard to the following question asked by the Honourable Member, the unit responsible for International and Regional Arrangements within the Fisheries Directorate-General (DG) counts on 10 statutary agents and a detached national expert for the coverage of the activities and related files of 11 RFOs. Besides consolidated organisations such as ICCAT, NAFO, CCAMLR, IATTC(11) and CFCM(12), which register a high level of activity throughout the year, the unit covers other organisations that are in the process of being set up (SEAFO(13), WCPOFC(14)), or even at the stage of negotiation (SIOFC(15)). The two remaining organisations, WECAFC and CECAF(16) are consultative committees dependent of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which register a relatively low level of activity, but should in the medium-term become autonomous organisations with their own separate budget and management functions. The unit is organised into teams with responsibility over one or several organisations so that the follow-up of their activities and the presence of representatives to the different meetings may be ensured, both at plenary and subsidiary levels.

The two North-East Atlantic organisations that the Honourable Member refers to are NEAFC and IBSFC(17). Responsibility for the follow-up of their activities as well as for those of NASCO(18) has been given to the unit responsible for the management of stocks within the Conservation Policy Directorate. The management methods they apply for the stocks they cover, the particular position that the Community holds therein as a Coastal Party, the specific co-operation and exchange mechanisms established with Norway, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Baltic States and the relations established in this context with candidate countries distinguish the Community participation to NEAFC and ISBFC from that to the other RFOs. It should be noted, however, that the bilateral fisheries agreements with Greenland are managed by unit B3. The tight links between the activity of both organisations and the management of internal fishery resources also motivate conferring the responsibility for their follow-up to the afore-mentioned unit.

As for DG Fisheries' Organigramme and Mission Statement, these documents are published and immediately available via internet on the home page of the Directorate General on the Europa website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/fisheries/index_es.htm

(1) North-Atlantic Fisheries Organisation.

(2) North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission.

(3) Proposal for a Council Regulation laying down control measures applicable to fishing for certain stocks of highly migratory fish, COM/2000/619 final (OJ C 62 E, 27.2.2001).

(4) International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

(5) Indian Ocean Tuna Commission.

(6) Regulation of 14 May 2001 (OJ L 137, 19.5.2001).

(7) Regulation of 22 May 2001 (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001).

(8) Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program.

(9) Regulation (EC) No 66/98 18 December 1997 laying down certain conservation and control measures applicable to fishing activities in the Antarctic and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2113/96 (OJ L 6, 10.1.1998), modified.

(10) Council Regulation (EEC) No 1956/88 of 9 June 1988 adopting provisions for the application of the scheme of joint international inspection adopted by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (OJ L 175, 6.7.1988), and Council Regulation (EC) No 3069/95 of 21 December 1995 establishing a European Community observer scheme applicable to Community fishing vessels operating in the Regulatory Area of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (OJ L 329, 30.12.1995).

(11) Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission.

(12) General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.

(13) South-Eastern Atlantic Fisheries Organisation.

(14) Western and Central Pacific Ocean Fisheries Commission (also so-called MHLC process).

(15) Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission.

(16) Respectively, Western Central Atlantic Fisheries Commission and Committee for the Eastern and Central Atlantic Fisheries.

(17) International Baltic Sea Fisheries Commission.

(18) North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation.