On Monday 1 February, the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries came out in favour of voluntary installation of cameras on board fishing vessels in order to strengthen controls on fishing activities.
The parliamentary committee voted more than 1,000 amendments to the proposal on the recasting of controls. The compromise amendments of the rapporteur, Clara Aguilera (S&D, Spain), were put to the vote last week (see EUROPE 12644/10). The final vote in the European Parliament committee on controls on fishing activities will take place on 5 February. The dossier will be examined in March in plenary session.
On Tuesday 2 February, the organisation Europêche welcomed the MEPs' position on the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) on board fishing vessels “on a voluntary basis”, provided that an incentive (quota uplifts) is granted by the competent authority.
Vessels that have committed two or more serious infringements should be equipped with CCTV technology “on a temporary and mandatory basis”, according to MEPs.
Ms Aguilera nevertheless intends to submit to the plenary a compromise on the compulsory nature of the CCTV for so-called 'high-risk' vessels.
In addition, the Committee on Fisheries advocates exempting vessels under 10 metres from the obligation to keep electronic logbooks; and the creation of an EU register of infringements. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)