Brussels, 19/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the Fernando Perez Royo report in Strasbourg on Thursday, the European Parliament approved the proposal for a regulation concerning a fisheries protocol between the EU and the Comores for the period 28 February 2001 to 27 February 2004. In comparison to the previous protocol this protocol (which mainly concerns tuna fishing) provides for a slight reduction of financial compensation (from 1,08 million euros to 1,05 million euros) for a slightly higher reference tonnage (4,670 tonnes per year).
The number of vessels which are authorised to fish in the waters off Comoros has increased from 60 to 65, of which 40 are tuna seiners (as opposed to 44 before) and 25 are surface longliners (as opposed to 16). The divison of fishing licenses is as follows: - tuna seiners: Spain (18), France (21), Italy; (1); - surface longliners: Spain (20), Portugal (5): For the tuna seiners, the advance to be paid by the Community ship owners for fishing licenses has increased from 1, 500 to 1, 750 ecus which equates to 70 tonnes of catch. Advances for licence rights for surface liners has also increased and depends on the gross tonnage of the vessels concerned. The advances are based on the authorisation to fish per tonne which has increased from 20 to 25 euros per tonne.