WRITTEN QUESTION E-3698/03 by Torben Lund (PSE) to the Commission. Contravention of ban on fishing with drift nets and of the habitats directive.
Date: 2003-12-10
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: France, Italy, environmental liability, fishing controls, fishing industry, fishing net, fishing regulations, infringement of EU law, marine mammal, protection of animal life

C 78 E/850

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

the protection of the natural values that led to the inclusion in the Natura 2000 network of the sites
mentioned above are also eligible for Community co-financing in the framework of the LIFE-Nature
programme. The Commission’s proposal for a new Regulation extending the LIFE programme until the end
of 2006 is presently being discussed in the Council and Parliament and, therefore, details are not yet
available.

(1) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.
(2) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.

(2004/C 78 E/0903)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3698/03

by Torben Lund (PSE) to the Commission

(10 December 2003)

Subject: Contravention of ban on fishing with drift nets and of the habitats directive

CNN’s home page revealed on 24 November 2003 how dolphins are being killed in their ten thousands
because fishermen in the Mediterranean area are using illegal drift nets. As well as dolphins, these drift nets
are also killing sharks and turtles.

According to CNN, both Italian and French fishermen are contravening the ban on drift net fishing and
therefore appear to be in breach of Council Regulation (EC) No 1239/98 of 8 June 1998 (1) amending
Regulation (EC) No 894/97 (2) laying down certain technical measures for the conservation of fishery
resources as well as Article 12(4) of the habitats directive.

Can the Commission state whether the CNN report is correct and, if so, what action it intends to take in
the light of this information and when it intends to intervene? How does it consider that this information
can be reconciled with existing EU legislation? What will the consequences be for a fisherman caught in
the act of fishing with illegal drift nets and how does the Commission anticipate that fishermen in other
countries will perceive these infringements and themselves be motivated to comply with the EU legislation?

According to CNN, there are at least 75 French vessels and at least 100 Italian ones fishing illegally with
drift nets and it would be scandalous if the Commission were not to intervene immediately to save more
dolphins from being killed.

(1) OJ L 171, 17.6.1998, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 132, 23.5.1997, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(21 January 2004)

We do not have detailed particulars of the CNN website presentation of 24 November 2003 to which the
Honourable Member refers but have been told about use of drift nets in the Mediterranean by certain
Community vessels. We are assessing the situation and have already been in contact with the relevant
authorities.

Using drift nets to take certain migratory species is now an infringement of Community law. Fisherman
doing so are therefore liable to administrative penalisation or criminal proceedings under the provisions
that Member States are required to introduce by the Regulation on conservation and sustainable
exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy and the Regulation establishing a
control system applicable to the common fisheries policy (1).

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Official Journal of the European Union

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It is not our business to comment on what view fishermen may take of infringements of Community law
committed by other fishermen. We do all that we can to ensure that fishing is properly policed by the
Member States. That applies not just to the prohibition on drift nets but to all the resource conservation
and management rules.

(1) Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of
fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy, OJ L 358, 31.12.2002; Regulation (EC) No 2847/93
establishing a control system applicable to the common fisheries policy, OJ L 261, 20.10.1993, last amended by
Council Regulation (EC) No 2846/98 of 17 December 1998, OJ L 358, 31.12.1998.

(2004/C 78 E/0904)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3701/03

by Marco Pannella (NI), Maurizio Turco (NI),
Marco Cappato (NI), Gianfranco Dell’Alba (NI),
Benedetto Della Vedova (NI)
and Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(10 December 2003)

Subject: Misappropriation of Community funds intended for the Palestinian National Authority

Knowing that:

(cid:1) on 15 September 2003 the International Monetary Fund reported that, over the 1995-2000 period,
USD 900 million had been paid from the Palestinian National Authority’s fund into a special account
controlled directly by Yasser Arafat;

(cid:1) at the end of October 2003 a group of Palestinian Legislative Council members belonging to the
Democratic Block called for a committee of inquiry to be set up for the purpose of investigating the
hundreds of thousands of dollars belonging to the Palestinian people which had allegedly ended up in
secret Swiss bank accounts controlled directly by Yasser Arafat;

(cid:1) Lesley Stahl, a reporter on the prestigious television programme Sixty Minutes (broadcast by the US
television network CBS), has calculated how much it costs each day for Mrs Suah Arafat (the wife of
President Yasser Arafat) to stay in Paris (reputedly USD 16 000);

(cid:1) since 1994 the European Union has paid over EUR 1 500 million to the Palestinian Authority under

the Oslo ‘peace agreements’.

The Commission:

(cid:1) what action has it taken in order to verify what the IMF stated in September 2003 and in order to
ensure that money belonging to the people of Europe and paid to the PNA no longer ends up in
special accounts which are beyond scrutiny;

(cid:1) does it not think that, since the reports from various European and international press sources all tally,
the Arafat family’s expenses are met to a not-inconsiderable extent out of the funding paid by the EU
to the PNA;

(cid:1) does it not consider that the EU funding (which continues to be paid to the PNA) should be suspended
until it is known whether the committee of inquiry called for by the members of the Palestinian
parliament can be set up and can begin its investigatory work?