Parliament adopted a report on a regulation concerning authorisations for fishing activities of Community fishing vessels outside Community waters and the access of third country vessels to Community waters. The amendments aim to clarify the scope of the regulation, the definitions of serious infringements and the IUU list, and that the regulation does not apply to overseas territories of EU Member States.
The rapporteur, Catherine STIHLER (PES, UK), voted against the content of the report as adopted in committee and decided to withdraw her name from the report. The report was adopted with 492 votes in favour and 107 against.
In the debate on 9 April, Ms Stihler explained: “I was compelled to remove my name from the report when the Committee on Fisheries rejected my key amendments. The report was supposed to simplify fishing authorisations. Instead, the Commission over-reached itself with an unnecessary article awarding itself the right to reallocate fishing quotas.
If supported unamended, this report will unjustly discriminate against northern countries and their historic fishing rights and jeopardise relative stability. To give the Commission carte blanche to reallocate fishing opportunities beggars belief, especially when fishing opportunities are scarcer. We have to ask ourselves whether we are facing a fishing free-for-all in the North Sea”.
Existing provisions relating to the authorisation of fishing activities of Community fishing vessels outside Community waters are currently laid down in several different legal texts. The purpose of this proposal is to simplify and improve the procedures related to the management of fishing authorisations. It intends to do so by setting up general rules and conditions that can be applied to all requests for authorisation. It proposes a single procedure for the management of all fishing authorisations and fixes the general division of responsibility between the Commission and the Member States.
New eligibility criteria, sanctions and reporting provisions are also being proposed. For example, vessels failing to comply with EU provisions in the previous year will not receive any authorisations. Compliance with international obligations under the various Agreements is strengthened by introducing measures that oblige the Member States to prohibit a vessel from fishing if it has been involved in a serious infringement or in cases where it has been placed on an IUU list.
