Press Release: Commission: improvements still needed in fisheries control

The European Commission has adopted a report on the monitoring of the Member States' implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) over the period 2003-2005. The report covers both the conclusions of the Commission's inspection missions in the Member States to evaluate their control procedures, and an analysis of the implementation reports submitted by the Member States. The report concludes that while significant progress was observed over the period, the control situation remained in general unsatisfactory. The Member States did not deploy sufficient human resources to ensure control of the CFP measures, they did not take adequate action to guarantee the quality of the inspections which they carried out, and only a few Member States had put in place strategies to optimise the use made of the means which were available to them. The report also points out that it is impossible to make accurate comparisons between the Member States' performance using the information provided in the national implementation reports, and proposes steps which will be taken in the next edition of the report to remedy this situation.