Brussels, 14/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has recently adopted a decision (published in the Official Journal L314 of 13 October 2004) setting the total for the Community's financial involvement in the purchase and installation of electronic positioning devices on board fishing vessels. On total national expenditure of 25.2 million EUR in 2004, the Commission plans to reimburse 13.2 million from Community funds, to include 3.7 million for Italy (out of 9.9 million in total public expenditure), 2.8 million for the United Kingdom (4.1 million in national expenditure), 1.9 million EUR for Spain (2.8 million), 1.3 million for France, and 876,000 EUR for Greece.
These electronic positioning devices allow a surveillance centre to keep a check on the fishing boats from a long distance, using what is known as the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). In line with the December 2002 regulation on the conservation of fish stocks in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the EU must give priority to extending VMS to boats of 15 metres or more in length.