Brussels, 02/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Parliamentary fisheries committee has recommended approval for the Commission proposal to define precisely what a drift net is. The report by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PES, Spain) was unanimously adopted by the committee on 25 January. It will be considered by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 14 February.
The proposal aims to put an end to any misunderstandings (such as those during talks on technical measures in the Mediterranean, see EUROPE 9312) in implementing the EU-wide ban, in place since January 2002, on the use of drift nets to catch tuna in the waters of the Atlantic or the Mediterranean (see EUROPE 9268 on the Commission proposal). This ban will, from 2008, be extended to Baltic vessels.
In concrete terms, the new definition - “any gillnet held on the sea surface or at a certain distance below it by floating devices, drifting with the current either independently or with the boat to which it may be attached” - should be inserted in three regulations (1998 technical measures, measures to reduce incidental catches of cetaceans and technical measures in the Baltic Sea. The EP fisheries committee rejected, by a large majority, the amendment put by its French members, Marie-Arlette Carlotti (PES), Philippe Morillon (EPP-ED), Bernard Poignant (PES) and Margie Sudre (EPP-ED), calling for the ban not to include vessels engaged in small-scale fishing in a clearly defined area (those using the “thonaille”, net panels joined together and weighed down with an anchor, used to catch bluefin tuna). (lc)