Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic (Codified version)

• Celex Number: 52006PC0497
• Published date: 14 September 2006

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Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic (Codified version) /* COM/2006/0497 final - COD 2006/0164 */

[pic] | COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES |

Brussels, 14.9.2006

COM(2006) 497 final

2006/0164 (COD)

Proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic (Codified version)

(presented by the Commission)

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1. In the context of a people’s Europe, the Commission attaches great importance to simplifying and clarifying Community law so as to make it clearer and more accessible to the ordinary citizen, thus giving him new opportunities and the chance to make use of the specific rights it gives him.

This aim cannot be achieved so long as numerous provisions that have been amended several times, often quite substantially, remain scattered, so that they must be sought partly in the original instrument and partly in later amending ones. Considerable research work, comparing many different instruments, is thus needed to identify the current rules.

For this reason a codification of rules that have frequently been amended is also essential if Community law is to be clear and transparent.

2. On 1 April 1987 the Commission therefore decided[1] to instruct its staff that all legislative acts should be codified after no more than ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement and that departments should endeavour to codify at even shorter intervals the texts for which they are responsible, to ensure that the Community rules are clear and readily understandable.

3. The Conclusions of the Presidency of the Edinburgh European Council (December 1992) confirmed this[2], stressing the importance of codification as it offers certainty as to the law applicable to a given matter at a given time.

Codification must be undertaken in full compliance with the normal Community legislative procedure.

Given that no changes of substance may be made to the instruments affected by codification , the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission have agreed, by an interinstitutional agreement dated 20 December 1994, that an accelerated procedure may be used for the fast-track adoption of codification instruments.

4. The purpose of this proposal is to undertake a codification of Council Regulation (EEC) No 3880/91 of 17 December 1991 on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic[3]. The new Regulation will supersede the various acts incorporated in it[4]; this proposal fully preserves the content of the acts being codified and hence does no more than bringing them together with only such formal amendments as are required by the codification exercise itself.

5. The codification proposal was drawn up on the basis of a preliminary consolidation , in all official languages, of Regulation (EEC) No 3880/91 and the instruments amending it, carried out by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, by means of a data-processing system . Where the Articles have been given new numbers, the correlation between the old and the new numbers is shown in a table contained in Annex VII to the codified Regulation.

ê 3880/91 (adapted)

2006/0164 (COD)

Proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article Ö 285(1) Õ thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee[5],

Having regard to the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty[6],

Whereas:

ê

1. Council Regulation (EEC) No 3880/91 of 17 December 1991 on the submission of nominal catch statistics by Member States fishing in the north-east Atlantic[7] has been substantially amended several times[8]. In the interests of clarity and rationality the said Regulation should be codified.

ê 3880/91 recital 1

2. The management of the Community's fishery resources requires accurate and timely statistics on the catches by Member States' vessels fishing in the north-east Atlantic.

ê 3880/91 recital 2

3. The Convention on future multilateral cooperation in north-east Atlantic fisheries approved by Council Decision 81/608/EEC[9] and establishing the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission requires the Community to supply that Commission with the available statistics that it may request.

ê 3880/91 recital 3

4. Advice received from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea under the Cooperation Agreement between that organisation and the Community[10] will be enhanced by the availability of statistics on the activities of the Community fishing fleet.

ê 3880/91 recital 4

5. The Convention on fishing and conservation of the living resources in the Baltic Sea and the Belts approved by Council Decision 83/414/EEC[11] and establishing the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission requires the Community to supply that Commission with the available statistics that it may request.

ê 3880/91 recital 5

6. The Convention for the conservation of salmon in the north Atlantic Ocean approved by Council Decision 82/886/EEC[12] and establishing the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (Nasco), requires the Community to supply that organisation with the available statistics that it may request.

ê 1637/2001 recital 5

7. Several Member States have requested submission of data in a different form or through a different medium from that specified in Annex IV (the equivalent of the Statlant questionnaires).

ê 3880/91 recital 6

8. There is a need for fuller definitions and descriptions used in fishery statistics and in the management of the fisheries of the north-east Atlantic.

ê

9. The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission[13],

ê 3880/91

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Each Member State shall submit to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, hereinafter referred to as ‘Eurostat’, data on the annual nominal catches by vessels registered in or flying the flag of that Member State fishing in the north-east Atlantic.

The nominal catch data shall include all fishery products landed or transhipped at sea in no matter what form but shall exclude quantities which, subsequent to capture, are discarded at sea, consumed on board or used as bait on board. Aquaculture production shall be excluded. The data shall be recorded as the live weight equivalent of the landings or transhipments, to the nearest tonne.

Article 2

1. The data to be submitted shall be the nominal catches of each of the species listed in Annex I in each of the statistical fishing regions listed in Annex II and defined in Annex III.

2. The data for each calendar year shall be submitted within six months of the end of the year. No submissions shall be required for species/fishing region combinations for which no catches were recorded in the annual period of the submission. The data for species of minor importance in a Member State need not be individually identified in the submissions but may be included in an aggregated item provided that the weight of the products thus recorded does not exceed 10% by weight of the total catch in that Member State in that month.

3. The lists of species and statistical fishing regions, the descriptions of these fishing regions and the permitted degree of aggregation of data may be amended in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 5(2).

Article 3

Except where provisions adopted under the common fisheries policy dictate otherwise, a Member State shall be permitted to use sampling techniques to derive catch data for those parts of the fishing fleet for which the complete coverage of the data would involve the excessive application of administrative procedures. The details of the sampling procedures, together with details of the proportion of the total data derived by such techniques, must be included by the Member State in the report submitted pursuant to Article 6(1).

Article 4

Member States shall fulfil their obligations to the Commission pursuant to Articles 1 and 2 by submitting the data on magnetic medium, the format of which is given in Annex IV.

ê 1637/2001 Art. 2

Member States may submit data following that in the format detailed in Annex V.

ê 3880/91

With the prior approval of Eurostat, Member States may submit data in a different form or on a different medium.

ê 1882/2003 Art. 1 and Annex I pt. 4 (adapted)

Article 5

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Standing Committee on Agricultural Statistics, Ö set up by Council Decision 72/279/EEC[14] Õ hereinafter referred to as ‘the Committee’.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph , Articles 3 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

3. The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.

ê 3880/91 (adapted)

Article 6

1. Member States shall submit a detailed report to Eurostat describing how the data on catches are derived and specifying the degree of representativeness and reliability of these data. Eurostat, in collaboration with the Member States, shall draw up a summary of these reports.

2. Member States shall inform Eurostat of any modifications to the information provided under paragraph 1 within three months of their introduction.

3. Methodological reports, data availability Ö and Õ data...