1. Officials responsible for carrying out inspections, as referred to in Article 74 of the Control Regulation shall be authorised by the competent authorities of the Member States. To this end, Member States shall provide their officials with a service card stating their identity and the capacity under which they operate. Each official on duty shall carry that service card and present it during an inspection at the earliest opportunity.
2. Member States shall confer adequate powers on their officials as necessary for the fulfilment of control, inspection and enforcement in accordance with this Regulation, and to ensure compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy.
1. Without prejudice to provisions contained in multi-annual plans, competent authorities of Member States shall adopt a risk based approach for the selection of targets for inspection, using all available information. In accordance with this approach, officials shall carry out inspections in accordance with rules laid down in this Chapter.
2. Without prejudice to provisions contained in multi-annual plans, Member States shall coordinate their control, inspection and enforcement activities. To this end, they shall adopt and execute national control action programmes as referred to in Article 46 of the Control Regulation and common control programmes as referred to in Article 94 of the Control Regulation covering both activities at sea and on land as necessary to ensure compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy.
3. Subject to a risk based control and enforcement strategy each Member State shall carry out the necessary inspection activities in an objective way in order to prevent the retention on board, transhipment, landing, transfer to cages and farms, processing, transport, storage, marketing and stocking of fishery products originating from activities that are not in compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy.
4. Inspections shall be carried out in a manner as to prevent to the extent possible any negative impact on the hygiene and quality of the fisheries products inspected.
5. Member States shall ensure that national fisheries related information systems allow for the direct electronic exchange of information on port state inspections between themselves, other Member States, the Commission and the body designated by it as appropriate, in accordance with Article 111 of the Control Regulation.
Duties of officials during the pre-inspection phase
During the pre-inspection phase officials shall, where possible, collect all appropriate information, including:
(a)
fishing licences and fishing authorisations;
(b)
VMS information corresponding to the current fishing trip;
(c)
aerial surveillance, and other sightings;
(d)
previous inspection records and available information on the secure part of the website of the flag Member State on the EU fishing vessel concerned.
Duties of officials authorised to conduct inspections
1. Officials authorised to conduct inspections shall verify and note the relevant items defined in the appropriate inspection module of the inspection report in Annex XXVII. For this purpose they may take pictures, video and audio recordings in accordance with national law, and, where appropriate, samples.
2. Officials shall not interfere with the right of any operator to communicate with the competent flag state authorities during inspection operations.
3. Officials shall take into account any information provided in accordance with Article 95(2) of this Regulation by a control observer on board the fishing vessel to be inspected.
4. On completion of an inspection officials shall debrief operators as appropriate on fisheries regulations relevant to the prevailing circumstances.
5. Officials shall leave as soon as possible the fishing vessel or the inspected premise following the completion of the inspection if no evidence of an apparent infringement is detected.
