Brussels, 29/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission decided to launch a formal investigation into two state aid schemes in the United Kingdom aiming to ringfence track records giving entitlement to annual quotas for the benefit of local fishing fleets in the Shetlands and Orkney Islands. The Commission believes that the purchase and leasing of track records represent preferential conditions for the local fishermen compared to other fishermen not concerned by these schemes and therefore constitute state aid.
The UK authorities justify the aid by the fact that local vessel owners had problems accessing commercial funding to acquire such track records as they are seen as intangible assets which cannot be used as security for loans from financial establishments. The Commission points out that in the UK, national quotas are allocated on the basis of track records of the quantities of fish caught by each vessel over the 1994 to 1996 period. Under certain conditions, the track records can be sold independently of the vessel to which they were allocated and a de facto market has developed. It is against this background that the Shetland and Orkney Island Councils acquired track records with a view to leading them to their vessels.