The Official Journal of the European Communities has just published the eleven Commission Decisions on the Multiannual Guidance Programmes for the fishing fleets of the eleven Member States concerned. These programmes, which will run until 31 December 1996, determine for a period of five years, and depending on the fishery resources available, the overall reduction in fishing effort judged to be necessary in fishing zones of Community and international/third country waters. Under these programmes, fishing effort is defined as the product of capacity (expressed in tonnage and/or engine power), and activity. Fishing effort needs to be regulated in order to limit access to fisheries to the number of vessels which fish stocks can sustain over the long term, while at the same time ensuring that the fleet remains commercially viable and allowing for technical progress. Some stocks have been considerably depleted in recent years, particularly round fish and, to a lesser extent, flat fish. This situation is due to overfishing on the part of certain fleets. Excess fishing capacity must be eliminated as quickly as possible so as to allow stocks to recover and permit fishing enterprises to focus on more accessible resources. In light of its responsibilities under the common fisheries policy, the Commission decided as early as the middle of 1991 to request Member States to adopt measures to ensure that these objectives were achieved. It believed that the first essential step was to segment the Community fleet so as to distinguish the more sensitive fisheries from those that are more robust. Member States were to be responsible for segmenting the fleet. After long discussions, a decision was taken at the meeting of the Standing Committee for the Fishing Industry held on 1 December 1992. The Multiannual Guidance Programmes were adopted by the Commission on 21 December 1992 and published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, OJ L 401 of 31 December 1992, which became available several days ago). The Commission is now concentrating on implementing the programmes in a way that will ensure that the objectives are met under with the conditions set and within the deadlines laid down. The Commission will meet with Member States in the first quarter of 1993 at a series of technical meetings in order to start joint implementation of the programmes. The Multiannual Guidance Programmes for 1992-96 are a major innovatory part of the structural measures taken by the Community to assist the fisheries sector. Although their targets still fall short of fully solving the problems posed by certain seriously overfished stocks, these new, third-generation programmes are far more ambitious than previous programmes in the amount by which they reduce fishing effort (overall reduction of 8% over 5 years) and the selectivity of their focus on specific targets. Reductions will be up to 20% in the fisheries most badly affected. Furthermore, the objectives of these programmes will figure as top priorities in the fishery schemes that will be included in the reform of the structural Funds. This reform also takes into account other Community policies, particularly on economic and social cohesion among the regions of the Community. * * *
