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

In adopting the report by Mr Cunha (EPP/ED, P), the European Parliament approves the annual report to the Council and to the European Parliament on the results of the multiannual guidance programmes for fishing fleets at the end of 1997. The European Parliament : - recognises that the coercive measures hitherto in existence to ensure compliance with the objectives of the MAGPs, such as initiating infringement proceedings or refusing to grant aid for the renewal and modernisation of the fleet, do not appear to have proved effective in that they have not encouraged the Member State fleets to meet the objectives set; - is concerned at the conduct of some Member States, which have been negligent in supplying reliable data on the state of their fleets and show scant interest in taking suitable measures to reduce capacity in line with the objectives envisaged in the MAGPs; - calls on the Commission and Member States to adopt stable and durable criteria for vessels measurement and fleet segmentation, so as to ensure that the evolution in the respective fleets and the content of the fishing vessel register of the Community can be established clearly and precisely in the course of the successive periods covered by the multiannual guidance programmes, since their excessively variable nature, a typical feature in recent times, facilitates with the MAGP objectives; - calls on the Commission to step up its efforts to ensure that the criteria employed in measuring the tonnage and power of vessels in each Member State are standardised, so as to ensure that the effort to reduce capacity is spread evenly across the various fishing fleets in the Union; - calls on Member States, as a matter of urgency, to undertake a measurement of the capacity of the fleet in accordance with the criterai laid down in Council Regulation (EC) No 3259/94 and Commission Decision 95/84/EC, a procedure which should have been implemented in 1995; - urges the Commission to submit proposals without delay on harmonising provisions on the power of vessels, so as to ensure that the state of all fleets can be compared on the basis of homogeneous criteria; - calls on the Commission, in accordance with the unanimous opinion of the Advisory Committee on Fisheries as expressed in its report on the revision of fisheries policy after 2002, to contract one or more independent certification institutes to check the data of the Member States on tonnage and power; - urges the Commission to pursue the measures introduced to compel Member States to comply with the provisions on the reduction of the fleet contained in the MAGPs, as regards both withholding public funds for the renewal and modernisation of the fleet and initiating legal proceedings at the Court of Justice; - urges the Council and Commission 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's fleets, so as to provide effective sanctions, such as a temporary reduction in the quotas for a Member State found to be in breach of those objectives or failing to meet the deadlines forsubmitting data; considers that retaining the relative stability principle should not serve as a pretext for the failure of Member States to honour their obligations.�