Fisheries sector: restructuration of the Community fishing industry for the period from 1.1.1997 to 31.12.2002, POP IV

OBJECTIVE: the proposal for a decision aims to guide the evolution of the fishing capacity of the Community fishing fleet for six years (1 January 1997 - 31 December 2000) so as to absorb the impact in areas dependent on fishing. The objective is to reduce the size of the fleet, maritime region by maritime region, fleet segment by fleet segment, to levels that guarantee the sustainability of fishing activities and the best possible development of fishery resources. CONTENT: for this purpose, the proposal makes a clear distinction between static gears, subject to particular provisions (technical measures), and towed gears. It also allows the Member States to implement specific programmes to manage the fishing effort, which will enable them to reduce fishing activity (another parameter of fishing effort) and in this way obtain an adjustment of the necessary reductions in fleet capacity. - For fleet segments using static gears, an across-the-board reduction of 2% per year will be requested to compensate for the average effect of technical progress on the fishing effort. The Member States will also be required to take appropriate measures to limit the fishing effort of these fleets; - For fleet segments using towed gears, the scope of the measures should be adapted to the biological constraints presented by the various fishing grounds and to the characteristics and specific nature of the sector. To this end, the Commission has identified five types of fishing grounds or groups of fishing grounds. - The arrangements for moving from the objectives established for the MGP III segments to the objectives of the MGP IV segments will be adopted, Member State by Member State, within the framework of Article 5 of Regulation No 3699/93/EEC on the adoption of a fourth multiannual guidance programme. These arrangements ensure that the effort ceilings per segment required by this decision will be respected. �