WRITTEN QUESTION P-0163/03

by Avril Doyle (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(22 January 2003)

Subject: Common Fisheries Policy

Would the Commission detail:

- the number of fishery officers in Spain; in UK; in France; in Belgium; in Ireland and in Denmark;

- the number of arrests and prosecutions in each country for the last available year.

- What quotas will be/have been allocated to each accession country, for which species, and waters?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(11 February 2003)

1. The following information concerning the number of fishery officers in Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom is based on annual reports submitted by the Member States.

The number of fisheries inspectors in Belgium is five.

In Denmark a total number of 127 officials are employed in the local inspectorates for the purpose of land based inspections. On the four fisheries control vessels deployed for fisheries control, there is a total number of 80 crew personnel, working on a rotation basis. All these crew members are empowered to carry out inspections.

Spain has, for fisheries control under the responsibility of the central government, 74 shore based fisheries inspectors at its disposal, of which 20 are working at the Spanish Ministry of agriculture and fisheries (MAPA) headquarters in Madrid and 54 are based in the different regions. The Autonomous Regions have a total number of 133 fisheries inspectors at their disposal. The number of officials carrying out, or being mandated to carry out, inspections at sea has not been provided.

In France the total number of Affaires Maritimes officials participating in fisheries control is 621, of which 291 are doing so on a permanent basis and 330 occasionally. In the absence of information about how much time, expressed in man-days, is actually spent on fisheries control, it is difficult to provide a basis for comparison with other Member States concerning the number of fishery officers effectively deployed for fisheries control. In addition, officials from the French Navy and the Gendarmerie Maritime are participating in fisheries control, but, again, in the absence of more detailed information about the time actually spent on these tasks, a proper basis for comparison cannot be provided.

Ireland has three senior fisheries officers and 35 fisheries officers for land based fisheries control. Sea inspections are carried out by the Irish Navy, and the number of officers empowered to carry out inspections is not available.

United Kingdom has at its disposal 151 shore based inspectors. Also for the United Kingdom, the number of officials carrying out or empowered to carry out sea inspections is not available.

2. For statistics on serious infringements reference is made to Commission Communication on behaviour which seriously infringed the rules of the Common fisheries policy (CFP) in 2001(1). The number of serious infringements and criminal and administrative procedures initiated as a result of serious infringements of the CFP can be found in Annex 1 which is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat.

Quotas for Accession Countries

3. The quotas' allocations within the enlarged Community are preserving the current fishing pattern. For the Baltic Sea, the basis for the new allocations is the current allocation key used within the International Baltic Sea Fisheries Commission (IBSFC), while for plaice, which is not regulated by the IBSFC, landings during the reference period 1997-2001 have been used as a basis. Outside the Baltic Sea, Poland has some allocations which are based on the current entitlements for Poland within the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) and in the cod fishery around Svalbard. The allocations discussed for insertion in the Accession Treaty can be found in Annex 2 which is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat.

(1) COM(2002) 687 final.