WRITTEN QUESTION E-2863/01 by Vincenzo Lavarra (PSE) to the Commission. Drift-net fishing in southern Italy — request for a moratorium pending acquisition of scientific data.
Date: 2001-10-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Italy, common fisheries policy, conservation of fish stocks, economic consequence, environmental impact, fishing net, fishing regulations, indemnification, third country

C 93 E/206

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.4.2002

The specific nature of these consortia initially created a number of problems in connection with the
procedures to be adopted, the eligible expenditure, the guarantees to be provided, the documentation to be
produced and the accounting implications, all of which had repercussions on the execution of projects,
delaying their launch by approximately two years. Only later did the consortia and the service centres start
to operate actively, which was welcomed by the broadest possible consensus in the sector.

The delays and initial difficulties are likely to prevent various projects from being completed, thereby
harming the fisheries sector and jeopardising the presentation of its projects, which means that the
resources made available may not be utilised and hence the objectives set with a view to reducing the
disparity between the fisheries sector in Italy and the rest of Europe are being only partially achieved.

For this reason the co-operative fisheries movement requested a year’s extension of the deadline for
completion of the projects of the three consortia and the service centres, but instead of obtaining this
forward the deadline for the
extension,
conclusion, recording and certification of projects to 15 December 2001 in its note no 19675 of 17 July
2001.

the Ministry for Agricultural and Forestry Policy brought

It is established practice to put back the deadlines for presenting the accounts of expenditure, in order to
allow the implementation of projects to be completed by the deadline (31 December 2001), as was in fact
envisaged in the last sentence of Article 5 of Commission Decision No 41 of 19 May 1995, which
mentions the final deadline by which the expenditure incurred in the operations concerned may be taken
into account. In the light of all this, what are the Commission’s intentions with regard to granting an
in order to prevent the Italian
extension of the deadlines for the FIFG and PESCA referred to above,
fisheries sector from being penalised further?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(6 November 2001)

The Commission is ready to examine individually all programme extension requests duly made by
Member States by 31 December 2001. It must stress that such action is warranted in only exceptional
circumstances.

The Commission will in fact be able to accept only applications relating to either clearly identified error
attributable solely to the Commission or force majeure, understood as disaster on a large scale with serious
implications for implementation of programmes part-financed from the Structural Funds.

Late adoption of programmes is not in itself an adequate ground for deferring their payment time limits.

In any event the Commission cannot take a formal decision on this matter until an official request has
been sent by the authorities responsible for management of the programmes.

(2002/C 93 E/245)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2863/01

by Vincenzo Lavarra (PSE) to the Commission

(17 October 2001)

Subject: Drift-net fishing in southern Italy : request for a moratorium pending acquisition of scientific

data

In response to pressure from third countries, who considered drift-nets to be a cause of environmental
damage, Regulation (EC) 1239/98 (1), definitively sanctioned the discontinuation of fishing for swordfish
with drift-nets (in Italy around 676 vessels were concerned, almost all of them entered in the Southern
Italian maritime registers).

18.4.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 93 E/207

The plan for compensation set out in Decision 97/292/EC (2) turned out to be totally unsuitable and had
an extremely adverse social and economic impact, in particular on employment. Even those least affected
: who continue to work in the sector : saw their income fall by approximately 30 %. All the others
found themselves unemployed, since their low level of education and high average age made any form of
reconversion impossible.

On the other hand, non-European fleets using the same fishing method have increased exponentially, so
that more than 500 new fishing boats from third countries using driftnets have been counted in the
Mediterranean, thereby nullifying the ban imposed by the EC as regards the impact on resources, not least
because the non-Community fleets fish without the precise rules to which European fishermen are subject,
and also import the fish into Europe.

The aforementioned compensation plan dated back to an earlier national agreement between institutions
and economic and social partners envisaging an optional rationalisation and reconversion plan (aimed at
reducing the drift-net fleet, whilst containing the economic and social damage for the fishing communities
involved) and the launch of scientific research designed to assess the environmental sustainability and
economic compatibility of the use of driftnets, as well as monitoring the effects of the rationalisation and
reconversion plan, but these measures were never carried out.

In view of all this, and the statements concerning the incomplete and unreliable nature of the scientific
data contained in the Green Paper on the common fisheries policy and the fact that the remaining Italian
drift-net fleet now consists of only 100 vessels, does the Commission intend to grant a moratorium
pending acquisition of the data needed to assess whether there are any valid reasons for definitively
abolishing this form of fishing?

(1) OJ L 171, 17.6.1998, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 121, 13.5.1997, p. 20.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(14 November 2001)

The Commission is firmly convinced of the need to enforce Council Regulation (EC) No 1239/98 of 8 June
1998 amending Regulation (EC) No 894/97 laying down certain technical measures for the conservation
of fishery ressources.

So far, the Commission has not received from Italy any sound scientific report on possible evolution of
gear technology or on the monitoring of incidental catches of protected species that could indicate a
substantial mitigation of the conservation problems for which the Regulation was adopted. Therefore, in
absence of innovative scientific information from Member States, the Commission does not intend to
reopen the discussion on this issue.

On the basis of the information available to the Commission, it cannot confirm or disprove the statement
by the Honourable Member regarding the number of non Community vessels operating with driftnets, in
the Mediterranean. However, it is important to highlight that the Regulation in question does not refer to
all drift-nets, but only to those, including the ‘spadare’, targeting a certain number of highly migratory
pelagic species.

In 2002, the control ashore and at sea of driftnet activity will be a priority in the inspection programme of
the Commission. Necessary steps will be taken to verify that the Community legislation banning the use of
driftnets on highly migratory species is adequately enforced. If this is not the case, all available appropriate
procedures will be applied against the Member States.