Commissioner Damanaki commented on this development: "I was informed today with great pleasure about the announcement of the Greek Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries for the signature of a Joint Ministerial Decision, after a delay of almost two years, on the collection and submission of yearly data on fisheries for Greece at the responsible European Commission authorities, DG MARE.
"This positive development will allow the country to resolve an obligation that was outstanding for years, to unblock the relevant programmes for 2013 and to be able to disburse funds of €1.8 million from the European Fisheries Fund. Instead, unfortunately due to the absence of a timely collection and submission of fisheries data, the country lost from 2009-2012 a total of €8.777.000 from European funds and risked large amounts of fines from the Court of Justice.
"I hope and wish that from now on, Greece will be consistent with its obligations, like other European countries which have established the collection and submission of data on a yearly basis, so that it can take advantage of the relevant opportunities offered by the European Commission and the European Union," she concluded.
