Brussels, 30/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - Forming the view that the agreement is not economically viable, the fisheries committee at the European Parliament refused, on Wednesday 29 May, to give its approval to the conclusion of the new fisheries protocol between the EU and Mauritania (see EUROPE 10833). This is the most important fisheries agreement for the Union, both in terms of volume and fishery product diversity and in terms of financial contribution. The European Parliament will vote during its July plenary session on this issue, in the knowledge that the EP has, in the past, already rejected extension of the agreement between the EU and Morocco.
To the great satisfaction of the Spanish government, the fisheries committee took up the recommendation made by the rapporteur, Gabriel Mato Adrover (EPP, Spain), to refuse to validate the agreement. Sixteen MEPs in the parliamentary committee supported the rapporteur's recommendation (six votes against and one abstention). “This fisheries protocol means higher costs for the EU and for ship owners”, the rapporteur maintains. For demersal species (such as black hake), the cost of fishing permits would sometimes increase by 400%. Also, the rapporteur points out that the protocol decreases the fishing areas accessible to each fleet, including the pelagic fleet with, as a corollary, a drastic reduction in catches. Mato Androver furthermore regrets that no access is granted to the cephalopod fishing fleet, saying: “The exclusion of vessels targeting cephalopods will eliminate 400 direct jobs and at least 2,400 indirect jobs”.
The Spanish government calls on the European Commission to renegotiate the terms of the agreement with Mauritania.
Chronology. On 26 July 2012, after 15 months of negotiation, the Commission signed the fisheries protocol with Mauritania, for an initial two-year period. The EU Council was obliged to sign the provisional application of the protocol on 3 December 2012 at the Commission's request, concerned by the idea of seeing itself lose part of the budget set aside for this purpose. Mauritania signed the agreement end 2012, when it took effect provisionally, pending EP approval.
The new protocol has an allocation of €110 million annually, with the Union's contribution amounting to €70 million (€67 million for access to resources and €3 million for sector-specific aid). The remaining €40 million per year are to be covered by those involved in the fisheries sector, through payments for fishing licences. Some 100 vessels from 12 member states should have access to the Mauritanian fishing waters. They come from Spain (in particular), Italy, Portugal, Greece, France, the United Kingdom, Malta, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Catches in that area are placed into eight categories: pelagic species, demersal species (hake and others), crustaceans and molluscs (shrimp and prawns, Norway lobster, lobster and crab), and tuna. The cephalopod category exists but zero fishing possibilities are attributed to it. (LC/transl.jl)