EC/Senegal fisheries agreement: protocol for the period from 2nd October 1994 to 1st October 1996

Mrs PERY criticised the fact that the EP was only required to give its opinion after the first of the two annual instalments of financial compensation had already been paid. Presenting the amendments she stated that in Parliament’s view: expenditure relating to this protocol should be non-compulsory; the Commission should draw up an annual report on the state of implementation of the agreement before 1 May each year; Parliament should be provided with a full report on the implementation of the agreement prior to any renewal; and, finally, Parliament should be consulted from the initial stages of the procedure. Commissioner PAPOUTSIS stated that he could take over Amendments Nos 2 and 4 in essence but not in their current form; he opposed Amendment No 5 because the Council issued a general mandate to negotiate fisheries agreements and had not provided a new mandate for each renewal. He also opposed Amendment No 1 as during the interinstitutional negotiations on non-compulsory expenditure, it had been agreed that non-compulsory expenditure would only apply to the Mediterranean agreements and not to fisheries agreements. The rapporteur responded that Parliament did not agree with the rules referred to by the Commission, in particular because the agreements had been negotiated in 1979; hence the need to negotiation new agreements.