Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-01-Speech-3-146"
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"en.20000301.9.3-146"2
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"The proposals for a Council regulation on the collection and management of fisheries data and for a Council decision on a financial contribution in this respect are both very welcome. So is a joint debate on them since each can only be fully understood in the light of the other. I understand that they have been some five years in their gestation. With the review of the common fisheries policy due in 2002, it is important that swift progress is now made.
Amendment No 3 brings into the ambit of the current regulation data of the kind needed to monitor changes in aquatic ecosystems. This will certainly facilitate the introduction of a new regulation concerning environmental data and may even render this unnecessary. It should be stressed that the Amendment does not in any way require the Commission to include the collection of such data either under the minimum or the extended programmes it establishes. It merely permits the Commission to do so should it so wish.
As already stated the proposal for the Council decision falls into two parts. The first is concerned with financing the Member States in implementing the Community programmes. The second is to allow the Commission itself to finance pilot studies and projects. There are some minor amendments: Amendment No 2 aims to ensure that the financial contribution to Member States can cover not only the costs of collection of data but also those of its management, compilation, aggregation, etc. Amendments Nos 3 and 6 aim to smooth the timescale given that Member States will have to wait until the implementing regulation is in place to know what the programmes actually involve; and also to bring the timescale into line with the dates and the regulation. Amendments Nos 4 and 5 aim to ensure that financial information is forwarded continuously to the budgetary authority.
More significantly, under Amendment No 1, the Fisheries Committee accepts the recommendation of the Budgets Committee that the funding should be placed under heading 1(b) rather than heading 3 of the Financial Perspective. Although in its preliminary draft budget the Commission entered the appropriations under heading 3 ‘Internal Policies’, Parliament created a new budget line B1-500 to finance the measures under discussion. This provides a safeguard to ensure that the necessary resources will continue to be available.
To take first the proposal for the Council regulation, this makes provision for Member States to collect a wider range of data relating to fisheries than required under previous regulations. Both biological and economic information are included. The proposal also makes provision for Member States to produce such data in aggregated form. Exactly which new data are to be collected and what is to be aggregated from these and existing data will be specified by an implementing regulation.
The implementing regulation will establish a minimum Community programme and an extended Community programme. It appears that these programmes will not cover the whole range of potential data but will be selective, for example, by type of fish stock.
The proposal for the Council decision allows for the making of the financial contribution by the Community to Member States engaged in the collection and management of data. It also allows the Commission itself to finance studies and pilot projects. The only apparent sanction for Member States that do not completely fulfil the requirements of the minimum programme under the regulation is that they will not be eligible for any financial assistance in respect to the extended programme.
Two major areas of concern about the proposal were considered by the Committee. The first relates to the degree of involvement of the Commission. The original proposal simply allowed for the information being gathered to be transmitted to international organisations. The Commission would only receive a copy of any such transmissions if it requested one.
Since, however, the Community is funding the exercise, it was felt appropriate for it to see a direct return on its investment. Thus, Amendment No 6, while maintaining the freedom of Member States to transmit the data to international organisations, requires that it also be sent annually to the Commission. This change is taken in conjunction with Amendments Nos 1, 4 and 7. Amendment No 1 clarifies the point that, although the data are to be scientifically based, they are being collected for wider decision-making purposes.
Amendment No 4 makes it clear that the object of the exercise is the evaluation of fisheries resources generally. Amendment No 7 calls on the Commission to report annually on the use it has made of the data collected under the regulation. It is also designed to give greater momentum to the process with earlier and more frequent reporting back by the Commission on the progress of the data collection programme as a whole.
The other area of concern related to the range of data to be collected under the regulation. First, in respect to economic data, Amendment No 2 makes two changes. One attempts to ensure that the data sought are no more detailed than necessary to serve the objective being pursued. The other replaces a reference to income from sales and other revenue, subsidies, interest received, etc., with a reference simply to volume of sales. It is considered that without these changes undesirably high costs in the collection of data could be incurred in Member States and that there could also be serious problems of confidentiality. In conjunction with these changes, Amendment No 5 deletes a reference to accounting headings accordingly.
Secondly, in respect to the environmental data, the original proposal speaks only of biological and economic information. The Commission has, however, made it clear that it intends itself to engage in studies and pilot projects of a wider environmental kind. It has also made it clear that it may wish to extend the range of data being collected by Member States at a later stage."@en1
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