Membership of Fish Producer Organisations in the Republic of Ireland

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries did not have the information requested.

Dear Maritime Affairs and Fisheries,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, and particularly the Aarhus Convention, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:

Registration details of boats which are members of Fish Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the Republic of Ireland.

The FPOs are:
the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation
the South and west Fish Producers' Organisation
The South and East Fish Producers' Organisation
and the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation

Yours faithfully,

Edward Fahy

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

1 Attachment

Dear Sir,

 

Your request for access to documents has been registered. This message is
an acknowledgement of receipt.

In accordance with Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, you will receive a
reply within 15 working days (11/02/2015).

 

Yours faithfully,

 

MARE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
 
European Commission
DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Unit F.2 - Information, communication,
inter-institutional relations, evaluation and programming

 

show quoted sections

Edward Fahy left an annotation ()

The specific regulation under which I am seeking this information is Regulation Number 1367/2006.

Many thanks,

Edward Fahy

Dear Maritime Affairs and Fisheries,

The specific Regulation under which I am seeking this information is Regulation No 1367/2006.

Yours faithfully,

Edward Fahy

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Fahy,

 

Subject:       Your application for access to documents/information – Ref
GestDem No 2015/484

 

With regard to your request dated 20/01/2015 for access to information
regarding the registration details of boats which are members of Fish
Producer Organisations (FPOs) in the Republic of Ireland, we regret to
inform you that the Commission is not in possession of any document that
could provide such information.

 

Member States of the European Union are only requested to communicate to
the Commission their decisions on the recognition or withdrawal of
recognition to Producer Organisations in the fisheries and aquaculture
sector. The legislation does not provide for the transfer to the
Commission of any detail on the membership of such organisations.

 

In light of the above, we invite you to address your request for access to
information to the competent national authority.

 

Best regards.

 

 

MARE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
 
[1]cid:image001.gif@01D03B0E.15252080
European Commission
DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Unit F.2 - Information, communication,
inter-institutional relations, evaluation and programming

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear Maritime Affairs and Fisheries,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries's handling of my FOI request 'Membership of Fish Producer Organisations in the Republic of Ireland'.

The response to my request for information is unconvincing.

I asked for membership lists of vessels belonging to Fish Producer Organisations (FPOs) in Ireland. I was told such information is not in the possession of the Commission.

Members of FPOs receive considerable benefits from the Commission, such as intervention payments. If the Commission is not aware of which boats belong then how does it audit payments made to vessels? This is one example of a benefit concerning which details must have been supplied to Brussels.

Please supply the information I originally requested, the national authorities have refused to do so, even though similar and greater relevant details are available on the web for FPOs in other member states.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/membe...

Yours faithfully,

Edward Fahy

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

1 Attachment

Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your message. We must reiterate that the Commission is not
in possession of the information you are seeking to obtain.

 

Fisheries producer organisations (FPOs) did indeed receive support from
the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) through the system of
payment of interventions on the markets provided by the previous Common
Organisation of the Markets (Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000).

 

Such financial support aiming at supporting FPOs was not directly paid to
the FPOs, and a fortiori to their members: the beneficiaries of this
financial support are the EU Member States. It is the Member States'
responsibility to reimburse their FPOs for the interventions which they
paid to their members, and to put in place the necessary control system to
verify that all related eligibility criteria are met (Article 36 of
Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 provides that "The Member States shall adopt
appropriate measures to ensure compliance with this Regulation and to
forestall and bring to an end any fraud").  The Commission reimburses the
Member States – not the FPOs – in a second phase. This explains why the
legislation did not provide for the submission by the Member States to the
Commission of details on the membership of FPOs.

 

Furthermore, we draw your attention to the fact that under the new
regulation on the Common Organisation of the Markets (Regulation (EU) No
1379/2013), the sole intervention mechanism (storage aid) will be subject
to the shared management regime and therefore, the Commission services are
not and will not be in possession of the requested information.

 

In light of the above, we have to reiterate that we are not in possession,
in the context of the application of this regulation or of any other legal
framework, of the registration details of vessels that are members of
Irish FPOs, and invite you again to address your request to the competent
national authorities.

 

Best regards.

 

 

MARE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
 
European Commission
DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Unit F.2 - Information, communication,
inter-institutional relations, evaluation and programming

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

show quoted sections

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Fahy,

 

Thank you for your e-mail dated 24/2/2015, requesting access to documents
under Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

 

The import data mentioned in the request are publically available. Please
consult the following pages:

 

Easy Comext

 

[1]http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/newxtwe...

 

 

EUMOFA

 

[2]http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/market-obs...

 

 

 

Best regards.

 

MARE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
 
European Commission
DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Unit F.2 - Information, communication,
inter-institutional relations, evaluation and programming

 

show quoted sections