WRITTEN QUESTION P-1675/03 by Inger Schörling (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Follow-up question on compensation to EU fishermen.
Date: 2003-05-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: FIFG, common fisheries policy, exchange of information, fishing fleet, fishing industry, fishing regulations, indemnification, structural policy

6.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 58 E/85

The Commission has since, however, agreed that the project could and should be relaunched on a new
basis. The Language and Cultural Institutes and the Observatoire international de la langue française (OILF),
which set up the Preparatory meeting in January 2003 with the Commission and with Parliament has been
invited (cid:1) together with other Institutes (cid:1) to draft a proposal for organising this symposium. The proposal
should, inter alia, define the parameters and cost of such an event.

Depending on the terms of the proposal produced, the Commission will consider providing the technical
support for the setting up of the symposium, on the sensible condition that the Institutes and the OILF
take a leading role in its organisation.

This solution reflects the Commission’s support for encouraging fruitful external debate on the various
aspects of multilingualism and its adherence to its obligations under the EC Treaty and under its Internal
Rules of Procedure to ensure the practice of multilingualism by its Language Services through pragmatic
measures. Nothing that the Commission has done, or will do, could ever be fairly described as being part
of any attempt to ‘exclude’ languages or ‘abolish or proscribe’ identity. On the contrary, all policies and
actions of the Commission are motivated by the active commitment to foster cultural,
linguistic and
personal diversity and distinctiveness.

(2004/C 58 E/102)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1675/03

by Inger Schörling (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

Subject: Follow-up question on compensation to EU fishermen

(13 May 2003)

With respect to the earlier question on compensation that has been paid to EU fishermen for cessation of
fishing activities (P-0742/03 (1)), the Commission has given only a partial answer.

Apparently three Member States have made such payments under the current FIFG programme but the
Commission did not provide all of the data which were requested.

Spain and Portugal (cid:1) compensation was paid resulting from the non-renewal of the Moroccan agreement
but no data are provided on the number of vessels and fishermen from each country or the time period(s)
involved. Also, the question referred to ship-owners, not vessels.

Belgium (cid:1) no data are given on the time period(s) involved (was this for one or more events?) nor on the
fishery(ies) involved and the circumstances leading to the stoppage(s). Also, the question referred to ship-
owners, not vessels.

For the previous programming period, only the total amounts of compensation paid by each of four
Member States is given, whereas similar details were requested as in the current programme (fishery, time
period, number of fishermen and ship-owners, etc).

Could the Commission provide the missing information?

(1) OJ C 242 E, 9.10.2003, p. 170.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on bahalf of the Commission

(16 June 2003)

In this follow-up to the Hounourable Member’s Written Question P-0742/03, the Honourable Member
information regarding the implementation of Article 16 (temporary cessation of
requests additional

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6.3.2004

activities) of the current Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) (1) Regulation. Regrettably, the
Commission was unable to provide a complete answer to this initial question because the reporting
requirements for the Member States regarding measures co-financed by the FIFG during the 2000-2006
programming period are limited. These requirements are actually laid down in Annexes I and IV of
Commission Regulation (EC) No 366/2001 (2).

With respect to temporary cessation of activities, these requirements relate to the type of action (as defined
in the FIFG Regulation), the number of vessels and fishermen involved and the number of days of activity
lost and giving entitlement to compensation (to vessels and to fishermen). This implies, for example, that
the Commission is unable to provide information on the number of ship-owners who have benefited from
this measure except when all of them own only one vessel. In all other cases, that is whenever some
benefiting vessels belong to the same ship-owner, all that can be said is that the number of benefiting ship-
owners is likely to be lower than the number of vessels affected.

Another problem, with which the Commission was confronted when attempting to provide a more
detailed response is that Member States have adopted various modes and frequencies for reporting the
relevant information. In one particular example, the numbers of fishermen and amounts of compensation
paid were reported on a monthly basis, with no possibility for the Commission to determine whether the
same or different fishermen had benefited from this measure all along the relevant period.

On the basis of the information provided by the Member States pursuant to this Regulation and in spite of
its occasional shortcomings, the Commission can nevertheless complete its previous answer as follows:

(cid:1) for Belgium, the exact number of vessels (which given the particular fleet ownership pattern appears
to be the same as the number of ship-owners) amounts to 59 and that of fishermen to 323.
The compensation covered the period 15 February 2001 to 30 April 2001 and was linked to the fall
in the North Sea cod stock;

(cid:1) In the context of the non-renewal of the fisheries agreement with Morocco, compensation for

temporary cessation was granted in the period 2000-2001 to:

(cid:1) 29 Portuguese vessels and 706 fishermen,

(cid:1) 397 Spanish vessels and 3 588 fishermen.

(cid:1) Spain has further granted aid in the context of ‘unforeseeable circumstances, caused by biological
total aid

factors’. However,
EUR 4,672 million of which the FIFG represents EUR 2,628 million;

the Commission can only inform about

the amounts

involved:

(cid:1) in this same context, Portugal has granted aid for temporary cessation of sardine fishing which
benefited 69 vessels and 899 fishermen. A total aid of EUR 1,105 million was paid for this of which
the FIFG represented EUR 0,829 million;

(cid:1) finally, Spain has granted aid in the context of

‘recovery plan for a resource threatened with
exhaustion’ with a total aid of EUR 27,714 million of which the FIFG represents EUR 21,261 million.

Regarding the previous programming period (1994-1999) and basically for the same reasons as indicated
above for the present programming period, the Commission is regrettably not in a position to complete
the information already provided.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2792/1999 of 17 December 1999 laying down the detailed rules and arrangements

regarding Community structural assistance in the fisheries sector.

(2) Commission Regulation (EC) No 366/2001 of 22 February 2001, OJ L 55, 24.2.2001.