WRITTEN QUESTION E-0650/02 by Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Europe's current heavily fisheries-dependent regions.
Date: 2002-03-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Structural Funds, coastal region, common fisheries policy, economic analysis, fishing industry, fishing regulations, regional development, regional economy, report

C 229 E/114

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

26.9.2002

Since the United Kingdom radiological protection authorities and government ministries continue to play
down the hazard posed by continued radioactive waste discharges from Sellafield, will the Commission
now convene a round table of experts, open to public scrutiny, to examine why the different radio-
protection authorities in two Member States take such different views on radiological risk for Sellafield?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(11 April 2002)

As confirmed in the reply to the Honourable Member’s Written Question E-0334/02 (1) the Commission is
aware of extensive variation in the concentration of radionuclides in seaweed from place to place but the
absolute concentrations have no radiological significance.

The report ‘The radiological exposure of the population of the European Community from radioactivity in
North European marine waters, project’Marína‘’ (Radiation Protection 47, 1990) is in the process of being
updated and will consider these matters. This report will be subject to subsequent discussion in the
relevant Oslo-Paris (OSPAR) Committee and an appropriate international conference. Consequently, the
Commission does not believe it appropriate to convene a round table of experts to consider the matter
also.

(1) OJ C 205 E, 29.8.2002, p. 120.

(2002/C 229 E/131)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0650/02

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

(11 March 2002)

Subject: Europe’s current ‘heavily fisheries-dependent’ regions

In the early days of the so-called Blue Europe, a mechanism for allocating fisheries quotas in Community
waters was worked out in terms of heavily fisheries-dependent’ European regions; within the CFP, this
became known as the ‘relative stability’ mechanism. At that time, these regions included Greenland, which
is now outwith the EU, Ireland, which no longer falls within the GDP criteria for cohesion regions, while
regions such as Galicia, amongst others, were not included since they did not form part of the EU (or the
EC as it then was). Galicia is currently an Objective 1 cohesion policy region, and its ‘heavily fisheries-
dependent’ status is unquestionable, as its socio-economic indicators clearly show.

Regulation (EC) 3760/92 (1) obliges the Commission to draw up a report on the economic and social
situation of coastal regions. Parliament rejected the document bearing this title which accompanied the
Green Paper, deeming it sloppy, incomplete and lacking homogeneous regional comparative analyses, and
called for a fresh report as an absolute priority.

Is the Commission going to heed the EP’s opinion and draw up a new study clearly defining which

1.
European regions are currently ‘heavily fisheries-dependent’?

2.

If so, when will the EP receive this study? If not, why is it not being carried out?

Does the Commission not believe that in order to tackle the reform of the CFP, it is essential to

3.
update the extent to which European regions are dependent on fisheries?

26.9.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 229 E/115

Does the Commission not believe that in the year 2002, the ‘relative stability’ fisheries quota
4.
allocation mechanism must take account of the current realities of the fisheries-dependency of our regions?

In the light of the structural, economic and social statistical data available to it, does the Commission

5.
view Galicia as a ‘heavily fisheries-dependent’ European region?

(1) OJ L 389, 31.12.1992, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(12 April 2002)

Article 14(2) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3760/92 of 20 December 1992 establishing a Community
system for fisheries and aquaculture requires the Commission to present to Parliament and the Council,
before 31 December 2002, a report on the fisheries situation in the Community,
in particular the
economic and social situation of coastal areas, the state of the resources and their expected evolution, and
on the implementation of that Regulation.

Such a report was indeed presented in March 2001, in volume II of the Commission’s Green Paper on the
Future of the Common Fisheries Policy (1), which included a ‘Report on the economic and social situation
of coastal regions’ based on information available to the Commission through its own desk research or
ad hoc external studies. The Commission acknowledged the shortcomings of this data, which was often
incomplete, and the problems of comparability of data originating from different Member States. It also
stressed that improved availability of economic data is a priority for improved economic management of
the fisheries sector. However, the report did provide a summary of developments in fisheries-dependent
areas, noting that the vast majority of such areas identified in 1990 remained dependent in 1997.

Detailed evaluation of the fisheries-dependence of European regions was the purpose of a series of 22
regional studies, one of them dealing specifically with Northern Spain (Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias, Basque
Country) completed in early 2000, on which the above-mentioned report was largely based. The findings
of these studies have been published and have been available for consultation on the Internet (http://
europa.eu.int/comm/fisheries) since early 2000. They show that some areas of Northern Spain, and of
Galicia in particular, are indeed highly dependent upon fishing. However, where the Structural Funds are
concerned the usefulness of the concept of fisheries-dependence is limited to Objective 2 areas, whereas
Galicia qualifies as an Objective 1 area and is likely to remain so for the next programming period.
Fisheries-dependence is thus not relevant for the Structural Fund allocations to this area.

(QLRT-2000-02277:

‘Construction and application of a computable general
A new research project
equilibrium model for analysing the contribution of fishing to regional development’) has recently been
launched with the support of the Community research programme in order to refine the relevant
methodology even further. In addition, the Commission has launched a methodological study to develop
socio-economic indicators for assessing the relative weight of the fisheries sector in the regions or areas
most dependent on fishing, so that the impact of alternative management measures on the economic
development of these regions or areas can be assessed and compared. The results of both of these must be
awaited before contemplating any further work on this topic.

On the principle of relative stability, under which fishing opportunities at Community level are subdivided
into quotas allocated to Member States, the Commission stated in section 5.1.4.1. (p 29) of its Green Paper
that it ‘does not for the time being see any viable alternative principle which could achieve the same
results’ and that since ‘the consultation process showed that this view is widely shared throughout the
Community […] there would be no need for a radical revision of the existing system.’ Allocation of the
national quotas between regions, areas or economic interest groups is a Member State responsibility.

(1) COM(2001) 135 final.