EC/Seychelles Fisheries Agreement: protocol for the period from 18 January 2005 to 17 January 2011, amendments

PURPOSE: to conclude the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters on the amendments to the Protocol setting out, for the period from 18 January 2005 to 17 January 2011, the fishing opportunities and the financial contribution provided for by the Agreement between the EC and the Seychelles.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

CONTENT: following the meeting of the EC/Seychelles Joint Committee in January 2007, it was decided that the two Parties would organise a meeting of the Joint Committee in order to submit proposals for amendments to the existing Protocol (CNS/2005/0173). These were discussed at the meeting of the Joint Committee held on 20-21 March in Brussels.

The main objective of the amendments made to the Protocol is to:

• increase the reference tonnage from 55 000 tonnes to 63 000 tonnes to take account of the average level of catches over the past three years;
• introduce the financial support for the partnership which was not introduced in the previous negotiations (prior to the Council Conclusions of July 2004 on Fisheries Partnership Agreements);
• increase the share paid by ship owners from EUR 25 to EUR 35 per tonne to bring the Protocol into line with other tuna agreements, hence reducing the Community contribution from EUR 75 to EUR 65 per tonne;
• fishing opportunities remain unchanged: 40 tuna seiners and 12 surface longliners;
• the annual financial contribution increases from EUR 4 125 000 in the current Protocol to EUR 5 355 000 in the amended Protocol and the estimated fee payable by ship owners from EUR 1 375 000 to EUR 2 205 000;
• advances and fees payable by ship owners: EUR 35 (compared with EUR 25 previously) per tonne of tuna. The advances are fixed at EUR 21 000 per year per tuna seiner, EUR 4 200 per year per surface longliner over 250 GT and EUR 3 150 per year per surface longliner of 250 GT or less.

The fishing opportunities set out in the Protocol and laid down in Regulation (EC) No 115/2006 will not be amended. To recall, these are:

Tuna seiners:

• Spain: 22 vessels
• France: 17 vessels
• Italy: 1 vessel

Surface longliners:

• Spain: 2 vessels
• France: 5 vessels
• Portugal: 5 vessels

This amended Protocol is to be applied provisionally from 18 January 2008 pending its entry into force in accordance with Article 13.

A proposal for a Council Decision on the provisional application of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters on the amendments to the Protocol is the subject of a separate procedure.