“All EU Member States, including Estonia, will implement the same point system where a certain number of points will be attributed for each serious fishing infringement. When a fishing vessel has accumulated more than 18 penalty points, its certificate will automatically be suspended for a minimum of two months. If the owner of the certificate has accumulated 90 points, its certificate will be permanently withdrawn and the use of this vessel for fishing will be banned,” explained Keit Pentus, the Minister of the Environment.
According to the Government’s order today, the implementing agency that will be in charge for keeping a register on fishing infringements and attributing the resulting penalty points to fishing vessels in Estonia will be the Environmental Inspectorate. Infringements for which penalty points will be attributed include fishing during a prohibition period or within a prohibited area, use of banned or non-compliant fishing equipment, fishing without a licence, etc. The Environmental Inspectorate will keep a record of the point system of serious infringements and will inform the data controller of the state register of fishing vessels, the Ministry of Agriculture. The Minister of Agriculture will, in turn, make decisions on fishing vessel certificates and will submit the corresponding information to the owner of the certificate.
If the offending owner of the fishing vessel does not commit any serious infringements within three years from the date of the previous infringement, all points on the certificate will be deleted. With attributing a certain number of points and suspending or terminating a fishing vessel certificate, often the activities of large vessels costing millions will be suspended, regardless of their owners, users or fishing options used. If a vessel is sold, transferred or changes ownership in any other form after the date of infringements, the points attributed will be transferred to any future owner of the fishing vessel certificate of this vessel.
The order will enter into force pursuant to the general procedure. |
