OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE on the Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) establishing a system of compensation for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French departement of Guiana as a result of their very remote location
Date: 1995-01-25
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: economic development, financial equalisation, fishery product, peripheral region, regional aid













EUR-Lex - 51995AC0049 - EN






Avis juridique important




|



51995AC0049

OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE on the Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) establishing a system of compensation for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French departement of Guiana as a result of their very remote location  


Official Journal C 102 , 24/04/1995 P. 0013 





Opinion on the proposal for a Council Regulation (EC)  establishing a system of compensation for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain  fishery products from the Azores,Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French department of Guiana as  a result of their very remote location(95/C 102/06)On 28  November 1994, the Council  decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Articles 43 and 198 of the Treaty  establishing the European Community, on the abovementioned proposal. The Section for Agriculture and Fisheries, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work  on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 10  January 1995. The Rapporteur was Mr Bento Gonçalves. At its 322nd Plenary Session (meeting of 25  January 1995), the Economic and Social Committee  unanimously adopted the following Opinion. 1. Introduction 1.1. The structural backwardness of the EU's outermost regions justifies  Community action to promote their economic and social development and enable their populations to  play a full part in the internal market. 1.2. The remote and insular nature of these regions is further justification for special aid to  offset the permanent geographical disadvantages facing producers there who wish to market their  products. The nature of these disadvantages means that support cannot be provided under the  Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance. 1.2.1. The Committee approves the proposal to finance the aid out of the EAGGF Guarantee Section,  given that the aid takes the form of market support. 1.3. Legal basis1.3.1. The legal basis of the proposal is Article  43 of the EC Treaty, to which the  Declaration on the outermost regions of the Community lends added weight. This Declaration, which  is annexed to the Treaty on European Union as Declaration No  26, concerns the adoption of measures  to strengthen employment and economic and social cohesion in these regions. The Maastricht  Conference made a number of specific undertakings in the Declaration: 'DECLARATIONon the outermost regions of the CommunityThe Conference acknowledges that the  outermost regions of the Community (the French overseas departments, Azores and Madeira and Canary  Islands) suffer from major structural backwardness compounded by several phenomena (remoteness,  island status, small size, difficult topography and climate, economic dependence on a few  products), the permanence and combination of which severely restrain their economic and social  development. It considers that, while the provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community and  secondary legislation apply automatically to the outermost regions, it is nonetheless possible to  adopt specific measures to assist them inasmuch and as long as there is an objective need to take  such measures with a view to the economic and social development of those regions. Such measures  should have as their aim both the completion of the internal market and a recognition of the  regional reality to enable the outermost regions to achieve the average economic and social level  of the Community.'1.3.2. Such is the legal basis underpinning the support which the EU grants  these regions via a number of instruments: - Council Decision 89/687/EEC of 22  December 1989 establishing the Poseidom programme for the  French overseas departments (); - Council Decision 91/314/EEC of 26  June 1991 establishing the Poseican programme for the Canary  Islands (); - Council Decision 91/315/EEC of 26  June 1991 establishing the Poseima programme for the Azores  and Madeira (); - Commission Decision of 30  July 1992 establishing Community aid for the abovementioned programmes  ()(); - Council Regulation (EC) No  1503/94 of 27  June 1994 establishing a system of compensation for  the abovementioned regions, designed to regulate the specific implementing provisions ()(); - Commission Regulation (EC) No  2954/94 of 5  December 1994 setting detailed rules for application  of Council Regulation (EC) No  1503/94, and defining, in cooperation with the Member States, the  procedures for granting EU financial resources and for monitoring their application ()(). 2. General comments 2.1. The Committee supports the proposal. 2.2. The proposal will put aid on a more permanent footing and thus enable economic agents to plan  their activities more effectively. The mechanism proposed in Article  5 also provides an  appropriate way of monitoring results. 2.2.1. The more permanent nature of the aid will do much to safeguard local employment and bring  about the desired social improvements. 2.3. The Committee asks the Council and Commission: a)to consider the promotion of actions to diversify these regions' productive structure; this  should be made a regional policy objective and should back up the support provided by the present  proposal; b)to ensure that the aid goes to small-scale fisheries, bearing in mind Article  3 of Commission  Regulation (EC) No  2954/94 of 5  December 1994 ()(); c)to extend the scope of the Regulation to other species. 3. Specific comments 3.1. Article  5- The Committee regrets that the Commission has not included it among the official  recipients of the report on the implementation of the measures provided for in the Regulation. - The ESC is a Community body comprising representatives of all the socio-economic interest groups  concerned, and its opinion on these matters is important. Done at Brussels, 25 January 1995. The Chairmanof the Economic and Social CommitteeCarlos FERRER() OJ No L 399,  30. 12. 1989, p. 39.  () OJ No L 171, 29. 6. 1991, p. 5.  () OJ No L 171, 29. 6. 1991, p. 10.  () OJ No L 248, 28. 8. 1992, p. 73.  () OJ No L 162, 30. 6. 1994, p. 8.  () OJ No L 312, 6. 12. 1994, p. 3.