The European Parliament this week adopted a report on a support scheme to compensate for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Guiana and Réunion from 2007 to 2013. MEPs add €2 million to the annual overall budget in order to cover the increase in transport and energy costs and say that products such as olive oil, which is used in fish processing, should also be eligible for support.
Support may be granted to fish producers, owners or operators of fishing vessels and operators in the fish processing or marketing sector.
The European Parliament adopted, under consultation, some amendments to the proposal:
* Without altering the proportions to be allocated to the individual Member States, MEPs add €2 million to the annual overall budget in order to cover the increase in transport and energy costs since 2003. The overall budget is thus raised from about €15 million to €17 million. The total amount of compensation per year should not exceed:
- Azores and Madeira: €4.855.314
- Canary Islands: €6.623.454
- French Guiana and Réunion: €5.518.000
* The support granted under this scheme should have a wider spectrum and not be targeted solely at the transport costs incurred in marketing fishery products. There are other additional supply and logistics costs associated with the processing of fish which should be duly taken into account.
* The additional costs linked to the use of raw materials such as olive and other oils, salt etc. should also be eligible for support.
* Compensation should not be restricted to 75% of the transport costs. It should be sufficient to fully offset the additional costs arising from remoteness and it should cover the cost of transport "to the European continent" and also "between regions".
* It should continue to be permissible – when catches by local fleets are insufficient – for local processing industries to be supplied by Community vessels, since this enables economic activity and employment to be maintained in the outermost regions.
* A modulation may be made among regions belonging to a Member State within the limits of the overall financial framework.
* As for the Posei-Agriculture scheme, a derogation should be granted for the outermost regions as regards state aid for the production, processing and marketing of fishery products.
* The Posei-Fisheries scheme (programme of options specifically relating to remoteness and insularity for fisheries) should, like the Posei-Agriculture, be a permanent scheme that is not limited in time, since the geographical and structural constraints that justify its application cannot be altered. To enable the compensation scheme to be revised, the European Commission should submit a report by 31 December 2011, accompanied, if necessary, by appropriate legislative proposals.
This compensation scheme, introduced in 1992 and extended in 1994, 19 95, 1998 and 2002, was initially granted to the archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands, and was extended to the French territories of Guiana in 1994 and Réunion in 1998.
