EC/Denmark/Greenland fisheries agreement: period from the 1st January 2001 to 31 December 2006. 4th protocol

PURPOSE : to establish a Fourth Protocol laying down the conditions relating to fishing provided for in the Agreement on fisheries between the EEC and the Government of Denmark and the local Government of Greenland. CONTENT : The Third Fisheries Protocol, in the framework of the Fisheries Agreement between the European Community and Greenland, is due to expire on 31 December 2000. This proposal aims to renew this protocol for the period 2001-2006 by amending certain catch quotas. In fact, under the Third Protocol, the low utilisation of certain catch quotas has continued, mainly due to the poor state of resources. Therefore, the need was identified to only fix, as far as possible, fishing opportunities which are really available in greenland waters in order to promote the full use of these fishing opportunities by the Community. Consequently, the quotas have been partly reduced compared to the Third Protocol. At the same time, the Community has retained an option to fix higher quotas, in most cases up to the levels of the Third Protocol, in the event that the fish stocks should re-occur and corresponding fishing opportunities should become available during the term of the new Protocol. The inclusion of temporary joint ventures and joint enterprises has been maintained. However, due to changes in Community legislation on these matters, financial assistance has been abolished in the case of temporary joint ventures and related to the conditions laid down in Council Regulation 2792/99/EC in the case of joint enterprises. The total financial compensation to be paid is EUR 42,820 million per annum. Compensation can be adjusted annually in proportion to supplementary quotas allocated to the Community. These adjustments can consist up to 50% of all or part of 20,000 tonnes of cod equivalents made available to the Community. A provision has been introduced laying down the procedure leading up to the review of the adequacy of this Protocol. The Parties shall assess their overall relationship, and whether additional instruments should be developed and implemented to better address the development needs of Greenland not later than 30 June 2003.�