WRITTEN QUESTION E-3944/03 by Dominique Souchet (NI) to the Commission. Fish-stock recovery plans.
Date: 2003-12-22
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: authorised catch, conservation of fish stocks, fishing industry, fishing regulations, fishing vessel, legal basis, legal status

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/271

(2004/C 84 E/0318)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3944/03

by Dominique Souchet (NI) to the Commission

(22 December 2003)

Subject: Fish-stock recovery plans

In connection with the recovery plans for fisheries exploiting stocks which are outside ‘safe biological
limits’ (see Article 5 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 (1)), would the Commission say which legal
basis should be used for establishing the status of a fishing company whose catch includes a set of related
species of which several are subject to recovery plans, such as cod, hake, sole and plaice?

Would the Commission state whether the vessels concerned should be subject to one or more stock-
recovery plans, and on what legal basis/bases?

Should it be established unequivocally that a vessel may not be covered by more than one plan, would the
Commission indicate the criteria to be used for assigning a given vessel to a given plan?

(1) OJ L 358, 31.12.2002, p. 59.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(9 February 2004)

There is no definition of, and hence no legal basis to establish, the status of a fishing company in relation
to the recovery plans.

Recovery plans fix harvest rules that determine the levels of total allowable catches (TACs) for the duration
of the recovery plans. The TACs resulting from the application of the harvest rules will be set out each
year in the TAC and quota Regulation. The TACs for stocks caught in association with the recovery stocks
will also be set out in the TAC and quota Regulation, and will take into account the extent of the
association with the recovery stocks. Any fishing company catching recovery stocks or associated stocks
will therefore be subject to catch restrictions on the same legal basis as any other fishing company.

The recovery plans may include other provisions, such as the limitation of effort or enhanced control
measures. If a company fishes a stock that is subject to a recovery plan and other stocks that are subject to
other recovery plans, the company must comply with the provisions of all the recovery plans concerned.
The legal basis by which the company is bound by the provisions of the recovery plans is Council
Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of
fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy, as well as the provisions of the recovery plan itself,
which has the form of a regulation, and is thus according to Article 249 of the EC Treaty ‘Binding in its
entirety and directly applicable in all Member States’.

(2004/C 84 E/0319)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3945/03

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

(22 December 2003)

Subject: Use of EU funds for terrorist organisations and checks on funding for the PNA

According to reports published in the German weekly ‘Stern’ and the UK daily ‘The Independent’, OLAF
and the Belgian police have opened investigations into alleged transfers of EU funds to a militant