Select Committee on European Scrutiny Third Report


11 Guide prices for fishery products

(28071)

15596/06

COM(06) 703

Draft Council Regulation fixing for the 2007 fishing year the guide prices and Community producer prices for certain fishery products pursuant to Regulation (EC) No. 104/2000

Legal baseArticles 18(3) and 26(1) EC; QMV
Document originated20 November 2006
Deposited in Parliament24 November 2006
DepartmentEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs
Basis of considerationEM of 1 December 2006
Previous Committee ReportNone
To be discussed in Council20-21 December 2006
Committee's assessmentPolitically important
Committee's decisionCleared

Background

11.1 Council Regulation (EC) No. 104/2000[25] provides for the annual fixing of guide prices for a range of fish and fish products, and for the fixing of an annual Community producer price for tuna intended for canning. Guide prices act as the base from which Community withdrawal and reference prices are calculated, which in turn set a market floor for fishermen who are members of a recognised Fish Producers' Organisation which adopts the Community withdrawal price. If no buyer can be found for a particular catch at a price above the withdrawal price, fishermen receive compensation from Community funds according to a pre-set formula. Reference prices are used to decide if action is needed against imports to offset severe market disturbance.

11.2 Guide prices, and the producer price for tuna, are intended to reflect average market prices recorded within the Community in the preceding year, and production and demand prospects. Account is also taken of the need to support producers' incomes, to stabilise market prices, to consider consumer interests and, in the case of the tuna price, to take into consideration the needs of the Community's canning industry.

The Commission proposal

11.3 The first proposal prescribes the guide price for fresh or chilled fish for the 2007 fishing year. The Commission proposes the following changes from the 2006 prices:

decreases of:

—  3% for spotted dogfish and shrimp;

—  2% for sardines and dab;

—  1.5% for cod and albacore;

—  0.5% for Northern prawn (fresh);

no change for hake, ling, common flounder, shrimps, Northern prawn (boiled) and Norway lobster (whole);

increases of:

—  3% for herring, saithe, haddock and cuttlefish;

—  2% for anchovy, megrim, monkfish, sole and edible crab;

—  1.5% for mackerel and plaice;

—  1% for plaice (May-December), dogfish, whiting, and Norway lobster (tails); and

—  0.5% for redfish and plaice (January-April).

11.4 The second proposal would set guide prices for frozen fish products. The Commission proposes the following changes from the 2006 prices:

decreases of:

—  3% for hake (fillets) and cuttlefish;

—  2% for hake (whole), sea bream and octopus;

—  1.5% for prawns (other Penaeidae);

no change for swordfish and squid;

increases of:

—  3% for illex;

—  2% for prawns (parapanaeus);

—  1.5% for Greenland halibut

11.5 The third proposal would set the Community producer price for tuna at €1,225 per tonne, an increase of 1.5% on the price set for 2006.

The Government's view

11.6 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 1 December 2006, the Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr Ben Bradshaw) says that the proposal reflects historic practice whereby prices are set to enable the Commission to operate its intervention mechanisms, and that, although the UK industry receives relatively little support under this regime, that which it does receive is important. With that in mind, the Minister says that the UK can support the proposal, but that the whole fisheries marketing regime is to be reviewed, when the UK will look for a full exchange of views on the need for having intervention schemes in this sector.

Conclusion

11.7 The setting of the guide prices for fish and fisheries products has sometimes proved controversial in the past. However, as in recent years, this does not appear to be the case on this occasion, and we are therefore clearing the proposal.


25   OJ No. L 17, 21.1.00, p.22. Back


 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2006
Prepared 19 December 2006