BRUSSELS, April 22 (Reuter) - Fishermen will benefit from a more flexible fish catch quota system agreed unanimously by European Union fisheries ministers on Monday, EU officials said. Under the new system, fishermen will be allowed to borrow up to 10 percent of the following year's national quota if the current annual quota is overfished. The "loan" of extra fish would have to be repaid the following year. Up to 10 percent of spare national quotas may be transferred to the following year instead of being lost. "It will enable member states to make better use of quotas within a year and from one year to the next," EU Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino told a news conference. Fishermen were formerly faced with serious problems either because of overfishing or under-utilisation of quotas. But Bonino said: "It's not a blank cheque because (the new system is) backed up by restrictions and penalties." British Fisheries Minister Tony Baldry said benefits for British fishermen would be very limited. "We actually ca

tch 100 percent of the U.K. quota already," Baldry told reporters. "Quotas throughout most of Europe are now so tight that the prospect of there being much leeway year on year is very limited." The new system will also reduce wastage caused by the jettisoning, or discard, of fish which have been caught as by-catches but whose quotas are exhausted. For instance fishermen hunting sole in the North Sea may catch plaice in the same net but might have to throw it overboard because its quota had been filled. The European Commission had proposed that quotas could be raised by up to 20 percent but Britain and several other member states said this was too much and might endanger stocks. Britain's Baldry said there was a danger that fishermen would plead special reasons for not "repaying" the extra fish. Fishermen will be allowed to overfish by up to five percent of the total allowable catch (TAC) for "precautionary" stocks -- where no scientific advice is available. Penalties will also be levied for overfishing of se

nsitive stocks, still to be defined by the EU, according to the extent quotas are exceeded. The new system, which would take effect from January 1997, depends on all member states giving accurate figures for fish landings, officials stressed. Several countries, including Germany and Belgium, supported a British statement demanding that a system for gathering data on fish landings on a consistent basis throughout the EU must be set up by the end of this year. "You have got to make sure that every country is playing by the same rules," Baldry said.