Council Regulation (EC) No 1587/98 of 17 July 1998 introducing a scheme to compensate for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French departments of Guyana and Réunion as a result of those regions' remoteness

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1587/98 of 17 July 1998 introducing a scheme to compensate for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French departments of Guyana and Réunion as a result of those regions' remoteness
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 43 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),
Whereas a Declaration on the outermost regions of the Community is annexed to the Treaty on European Union;
Whereas the difficulties facing the fishery industry of the European Union are aggravated in particular by the cost of transporting fishery products to markets as a result of the remoteness and isolation of the outermost regions;
Whereas, as part of the Community's policy to assist its outermost regions, by Decisions 89/687/EEC (4), 91/314/EEC (5) and 91/315/EEC (6) the Council has set up programmes of options specific to the remote and insular nature of the French overseas departments (Poseidom), the Canary Islands (Poseican) and Madeira and the Azores (Poseima) respectively, which outline the measures to be applied taking account of the special characteristics of and constraints on those regions;
Whereas measures of the same type already undertaken have proved successful;
Whereas the regions concerned are facing specific development problems and in particular additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain products as a result of their remoteness; whereas, with a view to maintaining the competitiveness of certain fishery products against similar products from other Community regions, the Community introduced measures in 1992 and 1993 to compensate for such additional costs in the fisheries sector; whereas those measures were followed up in 1994 and 1995 to 1997 by the adoption of Regulations (EC) No 1503/94 (7) and (EC) No 2337/95 (8); whereas the arrangements to compensate for the additional costs incurred in processing and marketing certain fishery products (tuna and demersal species in the Azores; tuna, black scabbard-fish and mackerel in Madeira; tuna, sardines, mackerel, aquaculture products, cephalopods, sole and seabream in the Canary Islands; shrimps in Guyana; tuna and swordfish in Réunion) should be continued from 1998 and provision must accordingly be made for the measures to be extended;
Whereas non-industrial and inshore fishing is important from the social and economic viewpoints in the outermost regions of the European Union;
Whereas fishing efforts must be rationalised for the sake of sound management of stocks and in particular in view of the research of a high technical standard conducted in this area by various scientific institutions in the outermost regions;
Whereas it is essential to respect the Community rules on the conservation and management of stocks in those regions, and in particular, in the case of the French department of Guyana, the rule prohibiting fishing for shrimp at a depth of less than 30 metres, and to provide for the adjustment, where necessary, of the amounts set for the various species in the light of their marketing conditions and characteristics,