§ Mr. Hargreavesasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food pursuant to his answer of 4 December, to the hon. Member for Scarborough (Sir M. Shaw), Official Report, column 788, what arrangements have been made to penalise overfishing under the common fisheries policy in the European Community.
§ Mr. GummerThe amendment to article 10(4) of the Control Regulation (EEC) No. 2057/82 agreed at the Fisheries Council on 5 November 1986 empowered the Commission to close a fishery when a total allowable catch has been exhausted even when one or more member states had still to fish their national quotas. In addition, provision was made for the first time to compensate those member states which suffered prejudice as a result of such a closure at the expense of the member state (or states) which had overfished their quotas of that particular stock. A Commission regulation 493/87 dated 18 February 1987 which provides the detailed rules for determining the nature and extent of the compensation has now been adopted with the approval of the Management Committee for Fishery Resources.
I believe that this is a practical and sensible regulation which gives member states and the Commission the flexibility to respond quickly in cases of overfishing and further strengthens the control arrangements of the common fisheries policy.