Council alters priorities for fisheries research
The Council of EU Fisheries Ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on 10 June 1996, adopted conclusions calling on the European Commission to strengthen data collection in European fisheries research. The conclusions call on the Commission to put forward proposals for the redirection of existing funding and improve immediately the methods and procedures used for data collection in all sectors of fisheries research, including both economic and biological research. In particular, the Council calls for the development of sampling plans for the collection of necessary basic data, and for the examination of possible co-financing, through Community funds, for data collection. The Council re-affirmed, however, that although data collection remains the responsibility of Member States, the Commission must play an important role in stimulating this work. These conclusions follow evaluations of the work done in the period since the Council's previous conclusions on fisheries research in June 1993.