Brussels, 23/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament chose largely to stick with the position of its fisheries committee in Strasbourg on Wednesday 22 April with the adoption, by 564 votes to 42, with 49 abstentions, of the report by Raül Romeva i Rueda (Greens/EFA, Spain) on improvements to be brought to the proposal on enhancing control of fisheries activities (see EUROPE 9874 for the vote in the fisheries committee). The response from European Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner Joe Borg was, however, mixed. It could be that there will be some very complicated arbitration within the Council of the EU. European fisheries ministers could debate this issue at their June meeting.
In a press release, the rapporteur regrets that the EPP and PES groups opposed “our attempts to improve the text to bring more transparency, particularly on the quantities of fish caught in the EU. This information remains confidential”. He was also unhappy that the Greens/EFA amendment for a fishing capacity reduction programme was rejected by the EPP and PES. Romeva i Rueda urged the European Commission to include a programme of this kind “as soon as the Common Fisheries Policy is reformed”.
During the debate Commissioner Borg said that he could not accept the amendments in the following areas: - the margin of tolerance in estimates logged of the weight of fish (in kilogrammes) retained on board is 5% in the initial proposal (the EP suggested increasing this to 10%, but Borg does not agree); - the EP proposes allowing quotas not fully fished to be transferred to other EU countries (the Commission believes that this issue should be dealt with in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy - CFP); - the Commission is against the EP amendment that removes the article on transhipment in port of species for which there is a recovery plan (cod, sole, hake, etc) since, it says, transhipments are used to conceal illegal catches; - the Commission is also against the removal of the arrangements that it proposes on real time closure of fisheries; the Commission is against the EP amendment to delay by one year (from 1 July 2013 as opposed to 1 July 2012 in the initial proposal) the requirement that vessels of between 10 and 15 metres length be equipped with equipment that will allow them to be located and identified by the surveillance system; - the EP also calls for financial aid for installing equipment required by the vessel surveillance system, with 80% Community co-financing (an infringement of budgetary rules, according to the Commission); - on recreational fishing, the Commission is happy that the EP agrees that catches should be deducted from quotas when they have a serious impact on the state of the stock, but rejects a number of amendments which state that member states “may estimate” the impact of recreational fishing in their waters (the Commission would have preferred the Greens/EFA amendment which was rejected and which said that member states “must” estimate the impact of recreational fishing); - with regard to sanctions, an amendment inserts a new article stating that holders of fishing authorisations who have received penalty points cannot receive Community subsidies or national public aid, something the Commission cannot accept since the 2008 regulation establishing a system for preventing and eradicating illegal fishing already provides for the possibility of banning subsidies for those who break the rules; - the effect of one EP amendment is to considerably reduce cases where it is for the Commission to decide to close the fishery, and this is unacceptable to Borg; - the Commission believes that a series of amendments substantially reduce the pressure on EU countries to comply with national quotas (accepting such amendments would be like maintaining the status quo, Borg said); - two amendments remove two of the proposal's articles which allow the Commission to deduct quotas and refuse exchanges of quotas in cases where CFP rules are broken by member states, but the Commission is demanding that these two articles be retained.
The Commission also welcomed the EP's rejection of amendments from the GUE/NGL Group calling for the removal of provisions that allow the Commission: - to close fisheries if felt necessary; - to take emergency measures. Commission provisions on administrative sanctions (which are expected to be between €5,000 and €300,000) and the creation of a penalty points system were approved by the EP. (L.C./transl.rt)