91997E1099

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1099/97 by Jesús Cabezón Alonso (PSE) to the Commission (21 March 1997)

Subject: Aid to the fishing fleet

Are reports that the Commission has suspended aid to the fishing fleet true?

If so, what are the Commission's grounds for taking this step?

Answer given by Mrs Bonino on behalf of the Commission (12 May 1997)

The Commission can confirm to the Honourable Member that Community assistance for the Community fishing fleet has been suspended with effect from 1 January 1997, for the following reasons.

- The third generation of multiannual guidance programmes (MAGP III) expired on 31 December 1996. These multiannual guidance programmes are essential tools in programming structural aid. Without such multiannual guidance programmes, the current rules and regulations prohibit the granting of aid. All aid for the fleet (everything covered by Title II of Regulation (EC) No 3699/93 taken as a whole, i.e. assistance for modernization/new construction and aid to help adjust fishing effort) must be granted within the framework of an approved programme.

- Member States are also still required to make sure that the fishing effort represented by their fleet does not exceed the targets set for the end of the MAGP III period. This obligation derives in particular from Article 1 of the Decision adopted by the Council at its meeting on 20 December 1993 (94/15/EC) and from Article 5 of the EC Treaty.

Accordingly, all Community part-financing of the measures referred to in Articles 7 to 10 of Regulation (EC) No 3699/93 has been suspended as from 1 January 1997 for all the Member States and for all measures affecting the fleet.

However, the Council had taken note that, if it could adopt the MAGP IV programmes by 30 April 1997 (but with effect of course from 1 January 1997), any measures undertaken by Member States after 1 January this year involving the restructuring of fishing fleets would qualify for part-financing by the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance.

The suspension of the part-financing of national aid does not mean that the national aid schemes themselves are suspended, provided these are state aid schemes approved by the Commission under Article 92 of the EC Treaty. However, funding of new construction and the modernization of vessels is authorized only if the original targets under a country's MAGP III were attained by 31 December 1996 and provided that the new assistance contributes to meeting the targets of the MAGP IV programmes finally adopted by the Council on 15 April 1997.