Following complaints from Scottish fishermen, the European Ombudsman has asked the Commission to correct “an administrative error”, mistaking waters west of Scotland for the North Sea, and allocate more fishing days there for some vessels.
During his investigation, the Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros confirmed that the Commission had erroneously interchanged the data in two columns of a document which served as a basis for the EU Regulation concerning fishing quotas for the year 2007.
In its opinion answering to the complaint, the Commission had explained that it had checked the figures and adopted the view that no mistake had been made.
The Ombudsman now called on the Commission to correct its error in order not to risk any knock-on effects for subsequent years.
The quota decision for 2007 had been made in accordance with the established Cod recovery plan for the West of Scotland and the North Sea.
Last year, however, a Scottish fishermen’s association complained that when allocating fishing days for those waters, the Commission had interchanged data from two columns, the result being that a reduction in fishing days in the West of Scotland should have instead applied to the North Sea.
The Ombudsman now says the Commission did indeed mix up the columns for the West of Scotland and the North Sea. He also urged the Commission to correct the error.