WRITTEN QUESTION E-0686/01 by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE-DE) to the Commission. FIFG and reduction of the EU's fishing effort.
Date: 2001-03-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Community budget, FIFG, common fisheries policy, fisheries structure, fishing industry, implementation of the budget, structural expenditure

C 261 E/176

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.9.2001

instrument for obtaining the requisite data on vessels. Ratification of the New York Agreement relating to
the conservation and management of straddling stocks and highly migratory fish stocks (adopted in August
1995 and signed in December 1995 at the United Nations) would also help to regulate activity on the high
seas and would require greater international cooperation by non-member countries and countries not party
to Regional Fisheries Organisations. Accordingly, the Commission would above all
like to see both
Agreements ratified as soon as possible so that they can be applied.

With regard to the Honourable Member(cid:146)s question about
infringements, by means of Commission
Regulation (EC) No 2740/1999 of 21 December 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of
Council Regulation (EC) No 1447/1999 establishing a list of types of behaviour which seriously infringe
the rules of the common fisheries policy (1) the Commission will obtain for the first time the requisite
information, which Member States will notify to it. The Commission will then present to the Council, the
European Parliament and in the Advisory Committee on Fisheries a general overview by Member State of
the information received. As regards non-Community vessels, there is a compliance committee at most
Regional Fisheries Organisations (e.g. at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tunas (ICCAT), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries
Organisation (NAFO) and the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC)).

All the relevant Community rules, and particularly Council Regulation (EEC) No 2847/93 of 12 October
1993 establishing a control system applicable to the common fisheries policy (2), are intended to reinforce
monitoring of fisheries activity from when fish are caught to when they are sold. The Commission and the
Member States have played an active role in the international action plan against unlawful, unregulated
and undeclared fishing; the plan provides for various ways of stamping out unlawful fishing (cid:129) such as
each state monitoring its nationals, monitoring and surveillance of fisheries activity from outset to landing,
and application of international market measures. The plan stresses above all the responsibility of the flag
state, as well as that of the port state and the importing state.

With regard to unlawful fishing(cid:146)s access to the Community market, as stated the international action plan
approved recourse to international and multilateral measures to stamp out trade in unlawfully obtained
fish and fisheries products by encouraging the application of penalties. The Regional Fisheries Organisa-
tions have demonstrated that it is possible to ban unlawful fish imports to the European market (e.g. the
bluefin tuna case at the ICCAT) and to monitor catches by means of catch certificates (e.g. at the
Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Mar(cid:237)ne Living Resources (CCAMLR), the IATTC and the
ICCAT).

The Commission took part in the joint FAO/International Maritime Organisation (IMO) working party on
vessel monitoring by flag states. In fact the international action plan calls for a closer working relationship
between the FAO and the IMO, inter alia with a view to defining the substantive link between the fishing
vessel and the state (Article 91 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea).

(1) OJ L 328, 22.12.1999.
(2) OJ L 261, 20.10.1993.

(2001/C 261 E/202)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0686/01

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

Subject: FIFG and reduction of the EU(cid:146)s fishing effort

(8 March 2001)

Parliament has asked the Commission and the European Council, in its resolution on the common fisheries
policy in the face of the challenge of economic globalisation, to continue with the provision of structural
aid to the sector, maintaining existing aids which do not entail an increase in the overall fishing effort,
notably those which imply environmental improvements or greater protection of the marine environment
and those granted to the fleets of Member States which have complied with their undertakings under the
successive Multiannual Guidance Programmes (MGPs). Parliament therefore calls on the Commission to
continue with its efforts to adapt the Community fleet to existing European and world resource levels, by

18.9.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 261 E/177

preparing a credible new fleet guidance programme which is in line with realities in the industry and can
be applied on an effective and equitable basis to all fleets and workers in the sector,
irrespective of
nationality.

Can the Commission state what amount within the total sum granted to the EU(cid:146)s fisheries sector in
structural aid was dedicated to reducing the fishing effort in each Member State over the period 1994-
1999?

Can the Commission provide information on the level of execution of that amount in each Member State
over the programming period 1994-1999?

Can the Commission state what happened to the non-executed proportion of the amount allocated to
reduction of the fisheries effort in each Member State over the programming period 1994-1999?

Can the Commission state what happened to the sums not executed in each Member State which were
returned to the Commission over the period 1994-1999?

Can the Commission state what amount within the total sum granted in structural aid to the EU(cid:146)s fisheries
sector has been allocated to the reduction of the fishing effort in each Member State over the period 2000-
2006?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(5 April 2001)

1.

Programming of adjustment of fishing effort 1994-99

Member State

Adjustment of fishing effort:
public aid planned from 1994 to 1999
(amounts shown in € million)

National aid (a)

FIFG aid (b)

Aid under the
Financial Instrument
for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG)
(column a) as a %
of total FIFG aid
planned in the Member State

B

DK

D

EL

E

F

IRL

I

L

NL

A (1)

P

FIN (1)

S (1)

UK

2,03

20,36

3,71

17,04

158,76

27,75

0,64

69,60

(cid:129)

13,20

(cid:129)

17,74

2,30

2,82

26,58

2,03

21,95

4,44

50,50

331,27

27,75

1,92

72,10

(cid:129)

11,65

(cid:129)

53,90

2,22

2,82

30,79

7,5 %

16,5 %

2,9 %

34,3 %

28,6 %

12,4 %

2,4 %

21,6 %

0,0 %

20,4 %

0,0 %

26,3 %

7,8 %

6,1 %

28,9 %

Sources: single programming documents and operational programmes 1994-1999.
(1)

From 1995 only.

C 261 E/178

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.9.2001

2.

Disbursement of funds on adjustment of fishing effort 1994-99

Member State

Adjustment of fishing effort:
appropriations actually taken up from 1994 to 1999

(amounts expressed in € million)

B

DK

D

EL

E

F

IRL

I

L

NL

A (1)

P

FIN (1)

S (1)

UK

National aid

2,03

20,72

2,61

11,91

145,39

19,17

0,65

32,48

(cid:129)

7,23

(cid:129)

12,09

2,13

2,26

31,99

FIFG aid

2,03

20,72

3,51

39,21

299,15

19,80

1,95

41,05

(cid:129)

3,88

(cid:129)

36,71

2,13

2,26

35,38

Sources: annual reports from the Member States on disbursement in 1994-1999
(1)

From 1995 only.

The amounts shown in the table above do not represent total disbursement as payments will continue up
to the end of 2001. Total disbursement will only be known in 2002.

3.
As indicated beneath the table in point 2 above, disbursement has not ended. It is not possible
therefore to determine at present whether part of the appropriations shown in the table in point 1 above
(and which amounts) are likely to remain unused. If that should be the case, the unused appropriations will
be cancelled since reprogramming has not been possible since 31 December 1999.

The Honourable Member is kindly referred to the Commission(cid:146)s answer to his Written Question

4.
E-59/01 (1).

5.

Programming of adjustment of fishing effort 2000-2006

(amounts expressed in € million)

Member State

Adjustment of fishing effort:
public aid programmed from 2000 to 2006

National aid

FIFG aid

B

DK

D

EL

E

F

IRL

I

2,1

16,8

6,7

16,3

125,6

35,9

1,7

116,1

2,1

16,8

7,8

48,8

319,9

35,9

4,8

116,1

18.9.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 261 E/179

Member State

Adjustment of fishing effort:
public aid programmed from 2000 to 2006

National aid

FIFG aid

L

NL (1)

A

P

FIN

S

UK

(cid:129)

9,0

(cid:129)

9,5

2,5

6,1

53,6

(cid:129)

3,0

(cid:129)

28,6

2,5

6,1

62,5

Sources: single programming documents and operational programmes 2000-2006
(1)

Flevoland only (the Dutch programming document for areas outside Objective 1 is still
being negotiated).

(1) OJ C 235 E, 21.8.2001, p. 106.

(2001/C 261 E/203)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0688/01

by Jaime Valdivielso de CuØ (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 March 2001)

Subject: Fisheries

On 1 February 2001 the Commission opened an investigation into a number of Member States, including
Spain, on the grounds that they had provided low-interest loans to fishermen particularly affected by the
continual increases in the price of the diesel fuel used by their vessels.

On the basis of what data and criteria has the Commission opened this investigation?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(10 April 2001)

As in the case of any aid scheme concerning the fisheries and aquaculture sector, the aid measures for
fishermen in Spain following the rise in the cost of the fuel were analysed in the light of the Commission
guidelines for the examination of State aid to fisheries and aquaculture (1). The basic criterion adopted by
the Commission in its decision to formally open a procedure with regard to these measures is that these
are operating aids which are in principle incompatible with the common market.

The guidelines have just been replaced by those adopted by the Commission on 29 November 2000 (2).
These new guidelines contain the same general principle that operating aids are incompatible with the
common market.

(1) OJ C 100, 27.3.1997.
(2) OJ C 19, 20.1.2001.