PURPOSE: to introduce a scheme for the period 2007 to 2013 to provide compensation for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from outermost regions.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Regulation (EC) No 791/2007 introducing a scheme to compensate for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the outermost regions the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, French Guiana and Reunion.
CONTENT: the Council adopted a regulation renewing the compensation system for fishery products from the EU's outermost regions, with a view to maintaining competitiveness with similar products from other Community regions. The regulation is aimed at continuing to provide compensation measures, for the period 2007 to 2013, for the additional costs incurred in the marketing of certain fishery products from the Azores, Madeira, the Canary islands, Guiana and Reunion. The system was first introduced in 1992 in order to compensate for additional difficulties in marketing fishery products from these regions, resulting mainly from transport costs to continental Europe.
The total amount of compensation per year will not exceed:
It is left to the Member States concerned to determine the fishery products eligible for compensation, their respective maximum quantities and the compensation amounts within the overall allocation per Member State.
Compensation will be paid to producers, owners of vessels and operators in the processing and marketing sector who incur additional costs in the marketing of fishery products, which must have been harvested and processed in accordance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy. Member States concerned must take steps to ensure the economic viability of operators receiving the compensation.
Each Member State concerned must determine for its regions the list of fishery products and the quantity of those products which are eligible for the compensation. This list and the quantities may be differentiated for each of the regions belonging to one Member State.
The compensation shall take into account:
-for each fishery product the additional costs resulting from the specific handicaps of the regions concerned, in particular the expenditure for the transport to continental Europe; and
-any other type of public intervention affecting the level of additional costs.
The compensation in respect of the additional costs shall be proportional to the additional costs it intends to off-set. The level of compensation in respect of the additional costs shall be duly justified in the compensation plan. However, in no case shall the compensation exceed 100 % of the expenditure incurred for the transport and other related costs of the Fishery products, which are intended for continental Europe.
Each Member State concerned shall draw up an annual report on the implementation of the compensation and submit it to the Commission by 30 June of each year. By 31 December 2011, the Commission shall, on the basis of an independent evaluation, report to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on the implementation of the compensation, accompanied, where necessary, by legislative proposals.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 06/07/2007.
APPLICATION: from 1 January 2007 until 31 December 2013.