Examination of Witness (Questions 620-623)
Mr Carlos Larrañaga
7 MAY 2008
Q620 Earl of Dundee: We learn that
the Commission is now consulting on a review of the Control Regulation.
What are Spain's priorities for the new Regulation?
Mr Larrañaga: If the Commission continues
putting on the table more control measures then we will have a
policy closed to the fishermen and we are saying it would be better
to find other ways of solving the problem. It is necessary to
improve our co-ordination system to deal with the dates and the
figures in a better way because there are differences between
the figures from the catches and the figures of the landings.
It is necessary to resolve the lack of information about that.
We need more co-ordination and we need to request the new European
Control Agency to work with all the Member States to establish
a system of managing the co-ordination system. At the same time
it is necessary to harmonise in all the European Union the system
of sanctions in order to avoid argument if the sanctions are penal.
We need to establish co-ordination and harmonise all the sanctions
so that if I catch fish under the biological measures I will have
similar sanctions in the United Kingdom, in Spain, in Italy and
so on to avoid. Right now there is a huge difference.
Q621 Earl of Dundee: In that connection
how do you see the role of the Community Fisheries Control Agency
evolving as part of your overall enforcement strategy?
Mr Larrañaga: There are several Member
States that do not want to give more power to the Agency but Spain
is supporting that. It is necessary to give more power to the
Agency and the first role will be to establish the co-ordination
between the Member States. For example, right now we have a problem
with blue fin tuna in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and
I think it will be very useful this year if the Agency can bring
about co-ordination between the Member States. We have a deployment
plan, including the Agency. The Agency controls co-ordination
with Member States and at the same time with the patrol system.
That will be very hard this year because there will be more blue
fin tuna caught in the Member States than in previous years because
if you have the Agency making the co-ordination, having the information
and dealing with the figures there will immediately be more quantity
of blue fin tuna. It will be a catastrophe for some Member States
but that will be good for everybody.
Q622 Earl of Dundee: We seem to be
talking all the time about these enforcement problems. Why do
you think they persist?
Mr Larrañaga: I think it is a problem
because it is difficult to put the fishing sector in our rules,
in our policy. We have a fishing sector in several Member States.
The problem is not with the huge fishing sector fishing over long
distances. The most important problem is with the fishing sector
which fishes day after day in a family fishing boat. They go out
to fish and sometimes they try to take the fish and sell them
without controls. For that reason we are supporting a fisheries
organisation. I think that will be a good solution. I do not know
why right now in the European Union this possibility is not acceptable
to all Member States. In Spain we are offering this possibility
to make a fisheries organisation and to agree quotas with them.
Q623 Viscount Ullswater: Governance
is our last question. Many of the stakeholders we have heard from
wanted a more decentralised model of fisheries management but
what we have read is that the Spanish Government are concerned
about decentralisation, perhaps even to a regional management
model, because it would undermine the principles of the CFP. What
do you see would be the proper role of the Regional Advisory Councils
and whether they should or could make decisions on the technical
conservation matters?
Mr Larrañaga: We agree with the RACs
but we think right now that several RACs have got a lot of people
working inside them and it is difficult to focus. The first intention
of the RACs is to study and discuss closely with the Commission
the rules and the Common Fisheries Policy. Sometimes it is so
difficult to reach an agreement inside the RACs about that. Spain
wants to do things in the correct way, to reduce the discussion
inside the RACs and focus on the real problems. This is the first
thing. The second thing is that we are afraid of discrimination.
I will explain. In a juridical mentality, if you have a problem
in the United Kingdom with a fisherman and the same problem in
Spain do you have the same solution or a similar solution? With
regionalisation we are afraid that in future it could be possible
to have different treatment of the same problem in different regions
of Europe. With our Common Fisheries Policy there will not be
a problem because there will be a policy in the North Sea, in
the Mediterranean Sea and so on. We are aware that the problems
in the Baltic are different from the problems in the Mediterranean
Sea. Their idiosyncrasies are different but we must not forget
that our first duty is to maintain the common policy. We support
the RACs. We think there will be a good solution at the same time.
We are pushing the Commission to take into account the opinion
of the RACs about that, but with regionalisation we are thinking
it will be better to establish several contracts to avoid these
problems in the future.
Chairman: Thank you very much indeed. Thank
you for your time.
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