B. CASES WHERE EFFECTIVE SCRUTINY HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE
28. PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION FIXING, FOR CERTAIN
FISH STOCKS AND GROUPS OF FISH STOCKS, THE TOTAL ALLOWABLE CATCHES
FOR 1997 AND CERTAIN CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THEY MAY BE FISHED.
Letter from Elliot Morley MP, Minister for Fisheries
and the Countryside, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,
to Lord Tordoff, Chairman of the Committee
I am writing to let you know that the above proposal was
agreed during the Dissolution prior to consideration by your Committee.
I enclose an Explanatory Memorandum (EM) on the proposal, which
was agreed, in amended form, at the Fisheries Council on 14-15
April and adopted as an A" point at the 21-22 April Agriculture
Council [not printed].
The proposal concerns the allocation between Member States
of 1997 Community quotas for (i) Atlanto-Scandian herring in international,
Community and Third Country waters, and (ii) horse mackerel in
the North Sea and Western waters. The Atlanto-Scandian herring
fishery was scheduled to open by 1 May at the latest, while fishing
for the two horse mackerel stocks had already commenced by that
date. This proposal was therefore considered, as a matter of urgency,
by the Fisheries Council on 14-15 April.
The Council decided not to proceed with an allocation of
horse mackerel quotas. This part of the proposal will therefore
be discussed further on a future occasion. However, the Council
agreed a revised proposal to allocate the Atlanto-Scandian herring
quota between Member States. The UK voted against this because
the allocation did not reflect recent fishing patterns and our
quota share was lower than was considered justified.
15 May 1997
Letter from Lord Tordoff, Chairman of the Committee,
to Elliot Morley MP, Minister for Fisheries and the Countryside,
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Thank you for your letter of 15 May informing me that the
above proposal was agreed at the Fisheries Council on 14-15 April.
Whilst I understand the reasons for urgency, I am most concerned
that effective scrutiny of Total Allowable Catch proposals has
once again been impossible. You may be aware that I wrote to your
predecessor, Tony Baldry, in December last year when I urged the
Government to seek improvements in the Commission's handling of
the TAC proposals in future years to enable national parliaments
to fulfil their proper scrutiny functions[8].
I should be grateful for your assurance that this is a matter
which you will raise with our European partners.
4 June 1997
Letter from Elliot Morley MP, Minister for Fisheries
& the Countryside, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food, to Lord Tordoff, Chairman of the Committee
Thank you for your letter of 4 June.
I share your frustration that the Commission tables proposals
concerning Total Allowable Catches (TACs) shortly before the deadline
for a Council decision and I shall raise this matter with Commissioner
Bonino.
23 June 1997
8 Printed in Correspondence with Ministers, 5th
Report, Session 1996-97, p 30. Back
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