Statement by DUP MEP Jim Allister:

"The European Commission, by a Regulation introduced in 1999, requires Member States to make an annual return of infringements of the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy.

The report for the year 2003 has just been published and makes amazing reading.  It shows a total of 9502 cases of serious infringement covering such matters as illegal fishing, tampering with records, obstructing fisheries inspectors, using prohibited fishing gear, breach of mesh sizes and fishing with falsified documents.  Spain - who gains the most under the Common Fisheries Policy - is the prime culprit with one third of the total of serious infringements, followed by Italy and Portugal.  The United Kingdom - ever zealous in implementing EU regulation - has a mere 91 infringements compared to Spain's 3158 and the Republic of Ireland's 103, even though its fleet is only one fifth the size of that of the UK.

The level of fines imposed for these breaches is equally enlightening.  For example, the average fine for unauthorised fishing in Belgium was 375 EUR but in the UK it was 19,255 EUR.  The average fine in Germany for falsifying data was 98 EUR but in the UK it was 132,056 EUR!  Overall, the average fine for serious infringement in the UK was 77,922 EUR whereas in Finland it was 282 EUR.

The average fines imposed in the Republic of Ireland are unknown because, in breach of the Regulation, the Irish authorities have failed to make the information available.

These figures, in the fishing area as in so many other areas, demonstrate that the UK assiduously, even fanatically, implements EU regulations while other countries largely turn a blind eye and impose laughable penalties.

Being grossly dissatisfied with the disparity which these figures illustrate, I am writing to Commissioner Borg to establish what remedial steps he proposes to take against the offending countries, not least the Republic of Ireland and its contemptuous failure to even provide information on penalties.

The Common Fisheries Policy has not only been a disaster in its content for the United Kingdom but, as these figures illustrate, in its implementation it is permitted to be wholly partisan".