14 Management of fishing effort in western
waters
| (24139)
15253/02
COM(02) 739
| Draft Council Regulation on the management of the fishing effort relating to certain Community fishing areas and resources and modifying Regulation (EEC) 2847/93.
|
| Legal base | Article 37 EC; consultation; QMV
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| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 24 November 2003
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| Previous Committee Report | HC 63-xxv (2002-03), paragraph 5 (18 June 2003) and HC 63-xxxvii (2002-03), paragraph 1 (12 November 2003)
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| Discussed in Council | 13 October 2003
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
14.1 In view of the pressure on the stocks in the Communitys Western
Waters, particularly following the accession of Spain and Portugal,
the Council established in 1995 a system for managing such effort,
involving the establishment of lists of vessels authorised to
fish, a number of general rules for determining the fishing effort
deployed by each Member State for demersal species, and the laying
down of the actual maximum effort for each Member State in each
fishery. The first of these Regulations also took into account
the terms governing Spanish and Portuguese accession, but, in
December 2002, the Commission put forward the current proposal,
which sought to reflect the fact that, as from 1 January 2003,
Spain and Portugal would become fully integrated into the Common
Fisheries Policy, and that consequently transitional provisions,
such as the limit placed on the number of Spanish vessels allowed
to operate in the so-called Irish box, would need to be revised.
14.2 We first reported on these proposals on 18 June
2003, and again on 12 November, when we noted that the Agriculture
and Fisheries Council on 13 October had agreed a compromise acceptable
to the UK. However, we also commented that only time would tell
whether the correct balance had been struck between on the one
hand ensuring that, following the end of the arrangements made
when Spain and Portugal joined the Community, suitable steps had
been taken to protect the stocks in question against a major increase
in fishing effort, and, on the other hand, avoiding control measures
which would be unduly onerous for fishermen of other Member States,
such as the UK, who have previously operated in these waters.
We therefore said that, before we considered clearing the document,
we would be glad if the Minister could spell out more fully how
the Regulation agreed would in practice address the need to safeguard
the stocks in these waters against a sudden increase in fishing
effort, particularly from Spanish and Portuguese vessels.
Minister's letter of 24 November 2003
14.3 In his letter of 24 November 2003, the Minister
for Nature Conservation and Fisheries at the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Mr Ben Bradshaw) points out that, since
there was no support from other Member States for a separate management
zone for the Irish Sea, it remains part of a wider management
zone for the whole of Area VII,[40]
thus allowing Member States with an effort allocation in that
Area to switch part of it to the Irish Sea. However, he points
out that although Spain (but not Portugal) has such an allocation,
its capacity to re-deploy this will be limited by a number of
factors. These include the fact that:
- a very large part of the Irish
Sea is covered by the territorial waters of the UK and Ireland,
to which Spanish vessels have no access;
- Spain has no quota for a number of the relevant
stocks, such as cod, whiting, plaice and sole, and so cannot diversify
into those fisheries;
- the main stocks in Area VII for which they do
have quotas — hake, anglerfish and megrim — are not
caught in significant numbers in the Irish Sea;
- the Commission has undertaken to monitor closely
any new fishing effort to ensure that it is consistent with measures
in place for the conservation of fish stocks;
- it is most unlikely that Spanish vessels would
want to use part of their existing effort allocation to pursue
speculative non-TAC fisheries in the Irish Sea;
- any request for an increase in their effort allocation
would need to be accompanied by a full scientific justification,
including evidence that there would be no increase in discards
of quota stocks.
14.4 The Minister concludes that these constraining
factors will make it very difficult for Spanish vessels to establish
economically viable fisheries in the Irish Sea or for other Member
States to increase effort beyond existing levels. He therefore
suggests that, whilst this does not amount to an absolute safeguard
of the kind a separate management area might have provided, it
does provide an adequate level of protection to the stocks.
Conclusion
14.5 We are grateful to the Minister for this
further clarification, in the light of which we are now clearing
this document.
40 This is an area defined for stock management purposes
by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas,
and, broadly speaking, covers waters to the south and west of
the UK. Back
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