Brussels, 10/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - In its latest report on implementation of the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the Commission reveals that, in 2001, Member States reported 8,139 cases of serious infringements of the rules in the sector, or 12% up on the previous year. Spain notified 3,717 cases (or 46%), followed by Italy (1,628 cases), Portugal (1,118 cases), Denmark (381 cases), France (372 cases) and Greece (364 cases). The Commission accuses Member States of not being strict enough, as only 331 infringements gave rise to the withdrawal of licences, and stresses the need to align the level of penalties that, for the same infringement, can vary from 367 euro in Sweden to 30,000 euro in France.
This report can lead to the following lessons being learnt: - with 130 vessels on the Community fishing fleet register, Belgium counts 56 serious infringements, whereas, with 7,932 vessels France only notified 372 and the United Kingdom, with 7,519 units only notified 96; - as in 2000, close to 50% of infringements concern illegal fishing (without authorisation or in prohibited areas); - the average amount of the fine, in the 4,969 cases sanctioned, was 1,338 euro, "which is hardly an effective means of deterrence", according to the Commission; - for the same type of infringement, the amount of the fine inflicted varies substantially from one State to the next (in Finland, the average fine for unauthorised fishing amounted to 84 euro, whereas that same infringement gave rise to a payment of 12,700 euro in Ireland); - decrees providing for the seizure of catches or fishing vessels are rare; - withdrawal of fishing licences are infrequent (only Denmark and Greece, and to a lesser extent France and Italy, have taken such measures); - the percentage of proceedings initiated in relation to the total number of boats is low (6.7% in 2001), which amounts to 6,115 fines inflicted for 91,462 vessels.