(2004/C 65 E/170)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2443/03

by Geoffrey Van Orden (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(22 July 2003)

Subject:   Predatory sea birds

Some sea birds such as cormorants are having a devastating effect on silver shoal fish in EU rivers and estuaries.

There is also a detrimental impact on the food chain, adversely affecting many species of birds and large fish.

Are predatory sea birds such as cormorants protected in any way by EU legislation or do national authorities have the power to carry out culls where necessary?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(23 September 2003)

The Honourable Member has expressed his concern regarding the impact that some species of predatory sea bird, such as the cormorants, have on silver shoal fish in Union rivers and estuaries.

Concerning the protection status of these birds the Commission would like to emphasise that like all the wild birds species, the cormorant is covered by the general system of protection of the Birds Directive (1), Member States may derogate from the prohibition of deliberate killing or capture by any method, the deliberate destruction of, or damage to their nests and eggs or removal of their nests in accordance with the system of derogations of the Birds Directive (Article 9).

When the Birds Directive was adopted in 1979, the continental subspecies of the cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis was regarded as in danger and therefore was listed in the Annex I to the Directive as a species subject of special conservation measures concerning its habitat, including the protection of the sites.

Nevertheless, the population of this species has increased significantly and the species is now regarded as being in a favourable conservation status. Following these developments, the Commission, after having consulted the Member States, removed the cormorant from Annex I to the Directive.

The Commission is aware of the fact that there are conflicts of interests between fishermen and cormorants in certain regions of the Union and agreed with the Member States that the derogations provisions of the Birds Directive can be fully applied to prevent the serious damage caused by cormorants, where justified and where there is no other satisfactory solution.

Since the elimination of the cormorant from Annex I to the Birds Directive in 1997, the Commission has continued to check the situation and to consider the question with the competent authorities of the Member States responsible for the implementation of the Birds Directive. From the latest discussions at the meeting of the Ornis Committee for the Birds Directive of 26 June 2003, it seems that present populations appear to be relatively stable in Europe and there is no agreement on the need to develop international co-operation for managing the populations of this species.

Finally, research is ongoing in various Member States and at European level (e.g. ‘Reducing the conflict between Cormorants and fisheries on a Pan-European scale: Redcafe’, funded under the 5th Framework Research and Technological Development Programme) on the development of improved methods to deal with the problem of the damage caused by cormorants to fishing.

(1)  Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds, OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.