FISHING CAPACITY AND FISHING OPPORTUNITIES:
ACHIEVING A SUSTAINABLE BALANCE (5288/07)
Letter from the Chairman to Ben Bradshaw
MP, Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare,
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Your Explanatory Memorandum on the above report
was considered by Sub-Committee D at its meeting of 28 February
2007.
The achievement of a sustainable balance between
fishing capacity and fishing opportunities is crucial to the success
of the Common Fisheries Policy. For this reason we were disturbed
to note that the UK was the only Member State which failed to
submit its annual report on this matter to the European Commission
and surprised that this was not mentioned in the Explanatory Memorandum.
We share the Commission's view that a consistent
approach across Member States to reporting on the pursuit of a
sustainable balance is crucial to identifying further policy work
that may be required. We would hope that the Government would
also agree that a consistent approach across the Community is
necessary in order to achieve the objectives of this common policy.
Though the Committee is content to clear the
proposal from scrutiny, we would be grateful for confirmation
that the Government will play an active part in the future in
fulfilling its reporting obligations within the framework of the
Common Fisheries Policy and that any failure to do so will be
acknowledged and explained in relevant Explanatory Memoranda.
28 February 2007
Letter from Ben Bradshaw MP to the Chairman
Thank you for your letter of 28 February. My
apologies for the omission in the Explanatory Memorandum. The
problems seen in 2006 were exceptional, and related to the fact
that the work to produce the report, along with other reporting
and analytical responsibilities is carried out by a small team
within the Marine Fisheries Agency. The detailed vessel-by-vessel
information on changes to the UK fishing fleet during 2005 that
formed a significant part of the EU report, and which is the information
used to demonstrate that the UK fishing fleet remains within its
overall limits in terms of total tonnage and total engine power,
were submitted by the required reporting deadlines in March 2006.
However, the pressure of other work on the unit at that time of
year as well as the absence of a key analyst due to long term
illness led to the non-submission of the accompanying report on
the balance of fishing capacity and fishing opportunities. The
following measures have been taken to ensure this does not happen
again in 2007 and in subsequent years.
Detailed information on the changes in the UK
fishing fleet during 2006 has already been submitted to the Commission.
Work has already started on preparing the content of the accompanying
report. An initial version based on existing format and content
will be completed by 31 March 2007. During April, the report's
content will be finalised, incorporating any analysis that may
be required as a result of changes to the format and content of
the report that come out of discussions the Commission are currently
engaged in with Member States. The report will be submitted by
the due date of 30 April 2007.
Responsibilities for this work are also being
divided amongst the staff in the statistics team to ensure that
in future years the reporting deadlines for this report will continue
to be met. In addition, the Explanatory Memoranda produced in
relation to future versions of this annual report from the Commission
will make a specific mention of the reporting of information by
the UK.
I hope that this information is sufficient to
reassure you on this matter.
27 March 2007
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