91997E1298

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1298/97 by Bárbara Dührkop Dührkop (PSE) to the Commission (11 April 1997)

Subject: Utilization of international fisheries agreements

What percentages of the quotas laid down in international fisheries agreements are actually caught by the Community fleet?

Answer given by Mrs Bonino on behalf of the Commission (9 June 1997)

The fisheries agreements concluded on the basis of reciprocity give the Community fishing opportunities in the northern Atlantic (i.e. the exclusive economic zones of the Faroes, Iceland and Norway) and in the Baltic. These fishing opportunities are normally fully taken up by Community fishing vessels.

The annual catch tonnage (250 000 tonnes) permitted under the agreement with Argentina to vessels operating within joint enterprises and joint ventures has so far been fully utilized.

In the case of the agreements with Morocco and 14 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP States), there are no fixed catch quotas; fishing opportunities are expressed in gross registered tonnage (GRT) for trawlers and in numbers of vessels in the tuna fisheries. The catch tonnages, which depend on the extent to which these possibilities are taken up, are declared by Community shipowners directly to the authorities of the third countries, in accordance with the agreements. In the case of the tuna agreements, the Commission has figures for the tonnages caught each year by the Community fleet and would be able to send them to the Honourable Member. For the agreements concerned mainly with trawling, Member States have begun to send the Commission, under the 'control' regulation, overall data which require detailed examination.