§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the provisions in existing treaties on which claims to exclusive competence over the marine produce of the sea in the draft EU treaty are based. [117998]
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Union's exclusive competence in respect of "the conservation of marine biological resources under the common fisheries policy" as set out in Article 1–12 of the draft constitution derives from a variety of sources. These sources are EC Treaty Articles dealing with agriculture, Regulations adopted establishing the common fisheries policy. (The current regulation is Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy), and Article 102 of the Act concerning the conditions of Accession and the Adjustments of the Treaties annexed to the UK's Act of Accession.
The European Court of Justice held in Case C-804/79 that "since the expiration on 1 January 1979 of the transitional period laid down by Article 102 of the Act of Accession, power to adopt, as part of the Common Fisheries Policy, measures relating to the conservation of the resources of the sea has belonged fully and definitively to the Community."