Luxembourg, 20/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - At around 3.00am on Tuesday 20 October, EU fisheries ministers reached political agreement on a text that will mean tougher checks and monitoring of common fisheries policy (CFP) rules. The new regulation, which will, for example, bring in a points licence for fishermen, will come into effect on 1 January 2010, with some provisions coming into force later (1 January 2011).
Current chairman of the Agriculture-Fisheries Council, Swedish minister Eskil Erlandsson said that it was important that consumers were sure that the fish they bought was caught legally. The regulation on controls provides for measures on product traceability to improve information on where fish come from, Erlandsson said. He also expressed his satisfaction that the agreement would put greater means at the disposal of the Commission to impose sanctions, such as the suspension of aid from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF), on EU member states which did not comply with CFP rules. “No fisherman should be able to profit from cheating,” he said.
European Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said that the agreement would mean that an effective controls system with dissuasive sanctions could be put in place. The new penalties system (a points licence, just as for road safety) could result in the loss of the fishing licence in the event of repeated infringements. Under the terms of the agreement, when the holder of fishing rights reaches a certain number of penalty points for the first time, the fishing licence will be suspended for two months. If the number of points is reached for a second time, the suspension will be for four months, then eight months for the third time and one year for the fourth. If the number of penalty points is reached for a fifth time, the fishing licence will be withdrawn. Arrangements on the points licence will come into effect in 2011.
Among the other points in the agreement, Borg highlighted: - the satellite surveillance system of vessels: every fishing boat of more than 12 metres will have to be fitted with this system; member states may, however, exempt vessels of up to 15 metres in length from the requirement for a surveillance system, if the vessels never spend more than 24 hours at a time at sea and operate exclusively inside the territorial waters of the flag member state; - there is to be a 10% tolerance authorised in log book estimates of the weight in kilogrammes of fish on board (compared with 20% currently); - leisure fishing is to be included in the regulation on controls, but (under pressure from several countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France), leisure catches will not be counted in national fisheries quotas. EU countries will be required to monitor leisure fishing catches of fish for which there are recovery plans in place (for example, cod in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and bluefin tuna) and EU scientists will carry out a study into the effect of leisure fishing on the resource. (L.C./transl.rt)