Agenda 2000: Financial instrument for fisheries guidance, application FIFG, structural assistance

This is the closing report on MAGP IV. During the six years of its existence the reduction for the Community fleet (without the vessels registered in the French outermost regions) has been 107.284 GT and 928.973 kW, or 5,31% in GT and 11,77% in kW. The relatively modest MAGP IV targets have been substantially over-achieved in most Member States. At 31 December 2002 the size of the Community fleet was 19% (in GT) and 13% (in kW) below the final objective of the MAGPs, and all Member States managed to bring their fleets within their objective both in tonnage and in power, with the exception of Belgium which is outside its objective in GT (104%). Out of the 23 fisheries where objectives had been set in terms of fishing effort, four fisheries did not respect the objective in Gtxdays and only two exceeded the objective in kWxdays. Taking into account the of the results expressed in tonnage (GT), which involve a certain degree of uncertainty because of the ongoing fleet remeasurement, the global result for the Community fleet is as follows: - Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden have met their objectives in all segments of their fleets; - all Member States, apart from Belgium and the Netherlands, have met their global objectives in tonnage at the end of 2002; - remaining uncertainties on the quality of the Irish fleet data make it difficult to assess their degree of compliance with MAGP IV. Furthermore, the Council regulations on the CFP reform, adopted in December 2002, established a link with the now-expired MAGPs by fixing the reference levels for the Community fleet as the sum of MAGP IV objectives in capacity. In the same spirit the Commission intends to take account of previous MAGP IV effort ceilings in any future effort limitation system in the framework of Recovery Plans or Multi-Annual Management Plans. This has already been proposed for the recovery plans for Cod (CNS/2003/0090) and for Northern Hake (CNS/2003/0137). These two proposals are under discussion in Council.�