The Fisheries Committee adopted today with 19 votes in favour and 2 against a report on the conclusion of the Protocol setting out the fishing opportunities and financial contribution provided for in the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and Mauritania for the period 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2012. The fishing opportunities are allocated among Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and France.
The new Protocol provides for a reduction in fishing opportunities compared with the Protocol in force from 1 August 2006 to 31 July 2008. Fishing opportunities have been decreased by 25% for the cephalopods category, by 10-50% for the demersal categories and by 43% for the small pelagics category, thus reducing the overall tonnage from 440,000 tonnes per year at present to 250,000 tonnes per year. The financial contribution is set at 86 million euros, the same as under the previous Protocol.
Rapporteur Carmen FRAGA ESTÉVEZ welcomes the fact that "we will still have a fisheries Protocol with Mauritania" but questions the work done during the negotiations, when "neither the industry nor the Member States were sufficiently consulted, resulting in a Protocol under which fishing opportunities have fallen considerably while financial compensation is held at virtually the same level". The rapporteur hopes that the four years in which the new Protocol will be in force will offer a better framework for dialogue that will make it possible to resolve these irregularities so that future protocols will not suffer from the same shortcomings.
The report will be soon available here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=2&procnum=CNS/2008/0093
