Brussels, 07/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a letter which they have just sent to the Commissioner for Fisheries, Franz Fischler, to the Presidency of the European Council and to the European Parliament, the association of the national organisations of the EU fishing industry (Europêche) and the fisheries section of the General Committee of Agricultural Cooperatives (COGECA) reject the main elements of the Commission's proposal to renew by one year (until 31 December 2002) the Multiannual Guidance Programme (MAGP IV) intended to limit the EU's fishing capacities. While admitting the principle of extending MAGP by one year to bring the expiry of this programme into line with reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), these professional organisations explain in a press release that they cannot, "in any event, accept the Commission's reasoning which, on the one hand, continues to state that the MAGP IV has not had the desired effects on the state of the Community fleet and on fishing resources, and on the other hand that it needs to be strengthened for one year with certain provisions of the FIFG [Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance] made stiffer, in particular those concerning the conditions for granting public aid for new fishing vessels".
Europêche and Cogeca reject the Commission's intention of making public aid for vessel construction and fleet modernisation subject to the particular Member State's compliance with the objectives of the MAGP for all fleet segments. In their view, each segment needs to be handled totally independently. The amendment that consists of not granting any aid to the construction or modernisation of boats in segments where programmes for reducing fishing activity by limiting the numbers of days at sea are currently being applied in order to conform with MAGP objectives, is equally unfounded, as this, they say, would remove the option that has been given by the Council. In their view, extension of MAGP must be done keeping the rules as they are, mainly without new rates of reduction of the fisheries effort. Most of the members of these organisations call for MAGP to cease in its current form as of 2002 because they do not consider that it is an adequate instrument for the management of resources and that its administration is "extremely complex and onerous" for the Member States and for the Commission. Europêche and Cogeca only accept the amendment whereby public aid should not be granted for the permanent transfer of fishing vessels to certain third countries.