WRITTEN QUESTION P-2078/01 by Pat Gallagher (UEN) to the Commission. Dolphin by-catch.
Date: 2001-07-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: by-catch, common fisheries policy, fishing net, fishing regulations, marine mammal, protected species, protection of animal life

6.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 134 E/11

Due to the reform of the customs procedures with economic impact the legal situation is now better than
before for those who want to stay with their vessels in the Union for more than 6 months. The longer
period of 18 months applies from 1 July 2001.

(1) OJ L 141, 28.5.2001.

(2002/C 134 E/012)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2078/01

by Pat Gallagher (UEN) to the Commission

(3 July 2001)

Subject: Dolphin by-catch

According to a recent BBC report on dolphin by-catch, reported strandings of dolphins have increased
66 % this year. The programme pointed to some evidence that there could be a danger of the extinction of
common dolphins as a direct result of pairtrawling.

Does the Commission have evidence to support such claims, and if so what mitigating measures could it
envisage? Is the Commission aware that pairtrawling is already banned in some states, and has it
considered proposing such a move within the context of integrating environmental concerns into the
Common Fisheries Policy?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(4 September 2001)

The Commission as such has no self-generated statistical evidence on this topic and thus cannot express
any evaluation on reliability and accuracy of
is the
responsibility of Member States to monitor cetacean incidental catches and to enforce existing Community
rules (1).

the statistics reported by the BBC.

In fact

it

Furthermore, the Commission is not informed on criteria utilised to diagnose the cause of death of the
stranded animals and, therefore, whether the increase in strandings of dolphins can be attributed to fishing
activities, particularly pair trawling.

The Commission is aware that most of the studies on the state of conservation of small cetaceans point to
the risk that by-catch of some species is attaining levels that might put at risk the sustainability of some
cetacean populations (not species extinction). However,
fishing
methods to this problem as well as its extent is still to be fully quantified.

the relative contribution of different

Nonetheless, the Commission has supported most of the scientific investigations on this problem. In
particular, the most recent study on incidental catches of cetaceans in pelagic trawls of the Northeast
Atlantic, published in Fisheries Research 41(3), state that the incidental capture of a marine mammal in a
trawl fishery is a rare event.

So far there are few hypothesis about how cetacean by-catch in trawls occurs and consequently few
suggestions about how to reduce it. Research proposals on cetaceans, are eligible for Community financial
support under the 5th framework program for Community research, both within key action 5 of the
Quality of Life Programme, and key action 3 of the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development
Programme, ‘Sustainable Maríne Ecosystems’.

The Commission is currently not considering a ban of pair trawling, since there are a range of different
gear specifications and operational aspects (such as depth, speed, time of the day, soaktime, season, area,
haulback speed, retrieval of the net etc.) that could have an influence on dolphin mortality. A complete
ban of such fishing technique would not seem justified at this stage.

C 134 E/12

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2002

Nevertheless, the Commission is open to consider all the necessary measures to mitigate, and possibly
eliminate, the incidental death of cetaceans in fishing activities. To this end the Directorate General for
Fisheries, in co-operation with the Directorate General for the Environment, will organise a meeting of a
subgroup of its Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, by the end of 2001, to have
an up-to-date review of scientific evidence and to find solutions to tackle the problem.

(1) Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora,

OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.

(2002/C 134 E/013)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2085/01

by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(5 July 2001)

Subject: Scandals involving the administration of the land register in Greece

The problems which have emerged in connection with the drawing-up of the land register in Greece are
well known, and the Commission sent a corresponding letter to the Greek Government on 19 January
2001.

The dialogue between the Commission and the Greek Government on the funding arrangements for this
project under the second CSF and possible funding under the third CSF is continuing. In the meantime I
have been made aware of the following facts:

D Surveyors working on the project are paid on the basis of the rights declared, with the result that they
are ‘discovering’ rights which do not actually exist under property law. If a building is divided into
flats, for example, the person making the declaration is told to declare separate property rights in
respect of each individual flat, even though he actually holds a real right to the block of flats as a
whole.

D Additional payment is planned on the basis of the number of documents forwarded, with the result
that a file is opened for each right declared rather than one file containing all the papers relating to
the rights declared.

D Surveyors are to receive additional payment for handling complaints. Consequently they have no

interest in ensuring that public notifications are error-free.

D If, for example, a declared plot is not listed in the first notification because an inefficient member of
staff was unable to locate it, the owner has no right to challenge the content of the first notification,
which constitutes a fundamental breach of Article 6 of Law 2308/1998.

D In Castoria virtually all the files forwarded after the first notification have been deemed impossible to

locate, with no provisional land register codes.

Is the Commission aware of these circumstances and what steps will it take to deal with the issue?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(4 September 2001)

The establishment of the land register in Greece is co-financed in the framework of the Operational
Programme (OP) for the Environment adopted for the programming period 1994-1999. The responsibility
for the management and control of this project remains with the Greek authorities, that have set up a
special agency (Ktimatologio SA) to carry out the work.

Their duties towards the Commission as a funding partner are: to ensure the sound management of
Community funds; to inform the Commission fully of progress in implementation in particular in the
framework of the monitoring committee for the above mentioned OP; to seek the formal approval of the
Commission for any substantial change in the definition of the project in the course of implementation.