Fisheries resources: control of boats operating in the North-East Atlantic zone NEAFC, multilateral cooperation

PURPOSE: to lay down certain control measures applicable in the area covered by the Convention on Future Multilateral Co-operation in the North-East Atlantic Fisheries. CONTENT: The North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC), to which the European Community is a Contracting Party, seeks to ensure the conservation and rational management of the fishery resources in the area defined by the Convention. At its annual meeting in November 1998, the NEAFC adopted 2 recommendations concerning : 1) the establishment of a Scheme of control and enforcement applicable to fishing vessels operating in the NEAFC areas and arranging inspections at sea which, provide for reciprocal rights of inspection of vessels by Contracting Parties together with a procedure for monitoring infringements and 2) the establishment of a Programme to promote compliance by the non-Contracting Party vessels, with the recommendations established by the NEAFC. The aim of the recommendations is to ensure respect for conservation and management measures adopted by the NEAFC. The Programme provides for the mandatory inspection of non-Contracting Party vessels, where these vessels entr the ports of Contracting Parties voluntarily and a ban on the landing and transhipment of fish if, in the course of such inspection, it is established that the catches have been taken in the breach of the conservation measures adopted by the NEAFC. These 2 recommendations will enter into force on 1 July 1999 and it is in the Community's interest, therefore, that they be applied in the Community by means of the proposed Regulation. The purpose of this proposal is to translate these recommendations for use in the Community.�