The European Commission has published its seventh annual report on serious infringements to the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The report, which built on reports by Member states, deals with infringements detected in 2006. The number of infringements detected that year was 10 362, while the average fine imposed by Member states was €1,548.
The report states that the most common types of infringements were those concerning storing, processing, placing for sale and transporting of fishery products not meeting the marketing standards in force, and unauthorised fishing. The Commission remains concerned both at the detection rate and the level of sanctions applied by the Member States.
The report said that the information provided by the Member States is once again insufficient to allow the Commission to draw useful conclusions as to how well the CFP is actually enforced. This enforces the Commission to preparing a complete overhaul of the existing CFP control regulation, and is in particular going to propose the introduction of harmonised administrative sanctions, which would help correct the arbitrary nature of the present system.
The report confirms the need to overhaul the Common Fisheries Policy control system, both in what it reveals, and in what it leaves unsaid. Without effective control it will be difficult to reverse the current downward spiral of European fisheries. Joe Borg, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, expressed that better, fairer, and more deterrent enforcement of the rules is a vital step towards the next Reform of the CFP on which we have now begun to work.
