European Commission Refuses to Correct Error in Fishing Quotas
From a report issued today by the European Ombudsman, who is responsible for investigating ‘complaints about maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the European Union’:
The European Ombudsman, P Nikiforos Diamandouros, has criticised the Commission for an administrative error concerning fishing quotas in the West of Scotland. This followed a complaint from a Scottish fishermen’s association.
After his investigation, the Ombudsman concluded that the Commission had erroneously interchanged the data in two columns of a table contained in a document which served as a basis for the EU Regulation on fishing quotas for the year 2007. This mistake led to a 10 % reduction of fishing days allocated for a specific group of vessels in the West of Scotland. The Ombudsman called on the Commission to correct its error in order not to risk any knock-on effects for subsequent years. The Commission, however, refused to accept the Ombudsman’s recommendation.
So, the European Commission has been found guilty of an administrative error, impacting on the livelihoods of fishermen, but has refused to change anything. This really tells you all you need to know about the nature of the Eurostate.
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