Brussels, 25/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - On 4 August, the European Commission adopted proposals to extend from 27 February 2004 to 31 December 2004 the current fisheries agreement (applying from the end of February 2001) between the EU and the Comoros. The prolongation is necessary because there have been delays in the negotiating of a new agreement. The protocol annexed to the fisheries agreement between the two parties ran out on 27 February 2004.
The scale of the fishing has not changed - 40 tuna seiners (18 Spanish, 21 French and one Italian ship) and 25 longliners (20 Spanish and 5 Portuguese ships). The proposals note that the Commission's financial payments under the interim system will be calculated pro rata in line with the current protocol, i.e. 291,875 euros, to be paid by 1 December 2004.