DESCRIPTION. 2.1. The beneficiary and the temporarily authorised aid measures
DESCRIPTION. 2.1. In the United Kingdom, the national fisheries quotas are allocated to three groups of fishermen: the ‘sector’ which is constituted of fish producers’ organisations on behalf of their members with vessels over 10 m, the ‘non-sector’ which comprises fishermen with over 10 m vessels not in membership of a producers’ organisation and the under ‘10 m fleet’. The allocations of quotas are made annually on the basis of ‘track records’ which are the catch levels of each vessel over a certain period. Before 1999, the track records were based on the catches made by fishing vessels during the three years immediately preceding each quota year. Since 1 January 1999, they have been based on the period from 1994 to 1996. This system is known as ‘fixed quota allocation’ (FQA); a FQA unit represents a 100 kg track record unit in respect of which annual quotas are allocated. The track records can be, under certain conditions, sold outwith the vessel. This situation is a very specific one among Member States. Except for the Netherlands which has a system of individual transferable quotas (ITQ) set up by law, the fisheries quotas or the track records giving access to them are not usually trans- ferable. Under this system, in the United Kingdom, a specified market for track records has developed; during the year 2000, it was possible to follow the market prices for this trade and the market lease costs for quotas allocated in respect of these track records in the trade newspaper Fishing News. It is in this context that the Shetland authorities decided to implement the scheme under examination. According to the United Kingdom authorities, this scheme of quota purchase was set up to ringfence them for the benefit of fishing vessels in the fisheries dependent area of Shetland, as the Shetland fleet had great difficulty in sourcing commercial finance for the purchase of quotas due to the escalating costs and the fact that quotas are intangible assets and cannot be used as security.
DESCRIPTION. 2.1. The beneficiary
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