The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Paulo CASACA (PES, PT) making some amendments to the proposal for a Council regulation on establishing a Community framework for the collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and supporting scientific opinions on the Common Fisheries Policy.
The main amendments were as follows:
- Member States and the Commission should be obliged to ensure sufficient levels of confidentiality in accordance with the data concerned, the characteristics of the end-user and the national law in question;
- “end-users” means national or international bodies which, whether or not scientific in nature, are active partners and participants in fisheries research or management; the degree of connectedness of the end-user to fisheries management and research shall determine his level of access to the primary, detailed or aggregated data;
- a new Article has been introduced stating that the Commission shall clearly define different kevels of penalisation according to the seriousness of the failure to comply, as also “official request for information” and “incomplete national programme”;
- a new Article has been inserted on charges: where the end-user is not a public body, a recognised scientific research centre, an international fisheries management organisation, or a body associated with any of the above for purposes of fisheries research or management, and where the persons, bodies or associations concerned are private, the public authorities may charge for providing environmental information. Any sum charged, however, shall be reasonable. Where charges are applied, public authorities shall publish and make available to those requesting information the scale of charges, specifying in what circumstances charges may or may not apply.
- in the definition of expenditure to be included in the national programme, account should be taken of expenditure arising from the self-sampling programmes;
- with a view to verifying the existence of the mandatory primary data to be collected under the Regulation, the Commission may carry out spot checks on the national databases;
- the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, may develop an IT platform for the exchange of the information enabling such checks to be made;
- the Commission shall provide for access to primary data collected under the surveys at sea schemes, which may include individual data, e.g. of a vessel. However, the confidentiality of the information of the economic agent must be safeguarded. Thus, the Commission may have access to aggregated (not individual) data, in line with the definition of aggregation to be included in the implementing regulation;
- Member States shall make data available to end-users to support scientific analysis, ensuring the confidentiality of such data and taking account of the following: i) detailed data as a basis for advice to fisheries management; ii) aggregated data:
- Member States may refuse to transmit in the case of detailed data, where the applicant cannot demonstrate that such data are essential for the management or research activity invoked;
- the Commission shall each year draw up: i) a report for the European Parliament and the Council evaluating the means employed by each Member State, the appropriateness of the methods used and the results achieved in the collection and management of the data covered by Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002; ii) a report on the Community use of the data collected under this Regulation.