The European Commission published on January 16th 2009 its Annual Report on the implementation of the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) for the year 2007. This report has been compiled in accordance with Article 68 of Regulation (EC) No 1198/2006 on the EFF and covers the actual implementation of the EFF in 2007. In addition, the first chapter of the report looks at the major events of 2007, in particular the adoption of the Implementing regulation and the guidelines for the implementation of EFF assistance, as well as the adoption of the National Strategic Plans (NSPs) and the Operational Programmes (OP).

On 1 January 2007 the European Fisheries Fund (EFF), which covers the period 2007-2013, replaced the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG). The EFF programming process has been rationalised and simplified compared to the FIFG, notably by streamlining the procedures for presenting the programming documents.

On 26 March 2007 the European Commission adopted Regulation (EC) No 498/2007, laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1198/2006 on the European Fisheries Fund. The purpose of this Commission Regulation is to set out in detail how Member States should implement the EFF. In addition, the Commission adopted on 29 August 2007 guidelines providing advice on the implementation of the 2007-2013 programming period.

Main results of the 2007 EFF Annual Report

Analysis of Implementation

• In 2007 23 Member States adopted their NSP and submitted it to the Commission.
• Following thorough negotiations with the Member States on the OPs, the Commission adopted 19 out of 26 OPs in the third trimester of 2007, the majority in December 2007 (see table in annex IV). The Commission was unable to adopt the seven remaining OPs since they were either submitted too late or not submitted at all by the Member States in question. The remaining OPs will be adopted in 2008.
• In total the 19 Member States whose OPs were adopted in 2007 allocated the following shares to the different priority axes: the highest percentage was allocated to axis 2 (32%), followed by axis 3 (28.2%), axis 1 (26.9%), axis 4 (9.5%) and axis 5 (3.4%).

Financial and Budgetary Implementation

• Due to the late adoption of the OPs, none of the Member States authorised any expenditure linked to projects in 2007 and none of the Member States used its technical assistance funds in 2007. No expenditure was made and therefore nothing can be reported on the financial implementation of the operational programmes.
• In 2007, 9.93% of the appropriations for 2007-2013 were committed and 5.31% paid. This was below the initial planning expectations, and is due to the delays in the adoption of seven Ops.
• The implementation of the 2007 budget was satisfactory both for the Convergence and the Non-Convergence objectives. 75.4% (72.42% for the Convergence and 84.43% for the Non-Convergence objective) of the resources available were committed, which corresponds to a 100% execution in relation to the 19 OPs adopted.
• Concerning payment appropriations for the year 2007, 81.1% (76.18% for the Convergence and 98.45% for Non-Convergence objective) of the resources were used. Once again, the amounts not used had originally been foreseen to pay the pre-financing advance of the seven non adopted Ops.
• Since seven OPs could not be adopted in 2007, the Commission proposed on 14 March 2008 to transfer the allocations not used in 2007 to subsequent years. This proposal was authorised by the European Parliament and the Council by Decision 2008/371/EC1. The amount in question totals EUR 117 258 873 for the Convergence objective and EUR 22 032 789 for the non-Convergence objective.

Finally, in accordance with Article 6 of the EFF, the Commission has ensured coordination and consistency between assistance from the EFF and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and other Community financial instruments by making sure that Member States clearly define demarcation lines for support under the different funds in the OP and set up appropriate coordination mechanisms between the authorities responsible for the implementation of these funds.