EUROPEAN FISHERIES FUND : IMPLEMENTATION OF EFF PICKED UP PACE IN 2010.

After a slow and difficult start, the implementation of the European Fisheries Fund (EFF picked up pace in 2010 - in spite of the economic crisis. According to the fourth report on the implementation of the EFF, adopted by the European Commission on 21 December 2011(2), 36.13% of the fund's global allocation had been attributed in 2010 to concrete projects - ie double the amount committed at the end of 2009.

The causes of the difficult and slow implementation of the 2006 regulation (1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013) had already been identified in previous annual reports: the late adoption of the EFF regulation and of the implementing regulation, the fact that member states prioritise more important EU funds, the complexity of establishing management and control systems, and the simultaneous completion of the implementation of the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) 2000-2006(3). The Commission notes that the economic and financial crisis - whose effects limited funds destined to national co-financing in some member states and hindered private investment - only aggravated this problem. But the implementation of the EFF started to accelerate in 2011, as the 2009 annual report had foreseen. At the end of 2010, 36.13% of the EFF's global allocation (3.849 billion) had been allocated to concrete projects, ie nearly double the sum committed at the end of 2009. This sum was committed for the four priority axes with the following distribution: 13.2 % - ie 567,485,078 - for Axis 1 (measures in favour of the adaptation of the Community...