Brussels, 20/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 18 June, the European Commission adopted a proposal for updating rules authorising EU vessels to carry out fishing activities in third country waters, and also on access of third country vessels to Community waters.
The draft regulation will, the Commission says, reduce the workload of both administrators and fishermen, in particular through increased use of computerisation and automation of certain procedures. The aim of the new rules is also to facilitate better compliance by fishermen with rules and better enforcement of Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) rules through the introduction of eligibility criteria, sanctions and the reinforcement of reporting of catches and fishing effort.
The main elements of the proposal are: - the introduction of a simple management procedure for all fishing authorisations and a clearer division of responsibilities between the Commission and member states; - the application of simplified electronic transmission of data; - a ban on granting authorisations for all vessels that have failed to comply with their obligations during the previous year or that have been listed by a regional fisheries organisation as an “IUU” vessel (one that has been involved in illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing), and the requirement on member states immediately to prohibit fishing for any vessel that has been involved in a serious infringement. To avoid overuse of fishing rights, the Commission is seeking the power to refuse to transmit a request for fishing authorisations when the fishing possibilities available to the member state concerned are clearly not sufficient for the number of authorisations requested. Finally, the Commission proposes the introduction of a system for the reallocation of fishing authorisations among member states, in the event of fishing quotas not being used.
In the introduction to its proposal, the Commission notes that fishing activities in international waters, and in the waters of third countries, are to a large extent governed by bilateral or multilateral agreements to which the Community is party. In order to comply with the obligations deriving from these agreements, and to serve the objectives of the CFP, it is important, the Commission says, for there to be a clear set of rules for the authorisation of fishing activities and the monitoring of those activities by member states and the European Commission.
The Community fishing fleet is active in the territorial waters of around 20 countries as part of bilateral agreements between these countries and the Community. Most of these agreements provide for a financial contribution from the Community. This is particularly the case for agreements with African and South American states (Gabon, Cap Verde, Senegal, Mauritania, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, Kiribati, Micronesia and Salomon Islands) but there is also a financial contribution in the agreement with Greenland. The other “northern agreements”, however, concluded with Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and also the agreement with French Guyana, do not involve a financial contribution and are mainly based on the trading of fishing rights.
In international waters, the Community fleet engages in fishing activities under the terms of various Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) agreements: Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC), Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and the Southeast Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO).
Independently of the activities regulated under these agreements, Community fishing vessels engage in fishing activities on the high seas, not covered by any specific agreement.
The management of fishing activities is carried out through the granting of authorisations to the vessels concerned. The types of authorisations to be issued, and the procedures to be gone through, differ from one agreement to another. For bilateral agreements, the third country is responsible for issuing authorisations. After an agreement has been concluded and the Council has shared out rights among member states, the Commission will transmit the requests to the third country and will subsequently inform the member states of the authorisations issued. Some 400 Community fishing vessels annually share 1,600 fishing authorisations under such agreements.
For agreements where there is no financial contribution, there are usually quota transfers, and this means that new authorisations have to be requested. Around 850 Community vessels share 1,600 under this type of agreement. Finally, approximately 8,000 Community vessels have been authorised to fish under RFMO agreements.
Vessels flying the flag of a third country can be granted access to Community waters. Currently, authorisations have been granted for 250 vessels, the majority being Norwegian vessels authorised to fish in Community waters under the terms of the annual agreement between Norway and the Community. For these types of authorisations, the Commission is the only authority able to deliver this kind of authorisation. (lc)