Multiannual guidance programmes MAGP for fishing fleets at the end of 1997 (regul. 3699/93/EEC). Annual report

The committee adopted a report by Arlindo CUNHA (EPP/ED, P) on the annual report on the results of the multiannual guidance programmes (MAGP) for the fishing fleets at the end of 1997. The committee pointed out that the full standardisation of measurement units for the vessels of all Member States had not yet been achieved and that the change in criteria governing the segmentation of the fleet as applied in the transition from MAGP III (1992-1996) to MAGP IV made it difficult to compare the data received. It called on the Commission and Member States to adopt stable and durable criteria for vessel measurement and fleet segmentation, so as to ensure that changes in the respective fleets and the content of the Community fishing vessel register could be established clearly and precisely in the course of the successive periods covered by the multiannual guidance programmes, since the excessively variable nature of such criteria in recent years was an obstacle to achieving compliance with MAGP objectives. The committee also urged the Commission to press more strongly for compliance with Community rules and to review the system of penalties in force in the event not only of failure to comply with the objectives of the MAGPs but also of repeated delays or failure to submit data on the Member States' fleets.