Proposal for a Council Regulation fixing for 2013 the fishing opportunities available to EU vessels for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks which are not subject to international negotiations or agreements

All fishing opportunities regulations must limit the harvesting of the fish stocks to levels which must be consistent with the overall objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). In this respect, Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy sets out the objectives for the annual proposals for catch and fishing effort limitations to ensure that Union fisheries are ecologically, economically and socially sustainable.

The fishing opportunities exercise represents an annual management cycle (biennial in the case of deep sea stocks). However, this does not stand in the way of the introduction of long-term management approaches. The Union has made good progress in this regard and key stocks of commercial interest are now subject to multi-annual management plans. Yearly TACs and effort ceilings must comply with them.

This proposal covers the stocks in the Atlantic and the North Sea for which the Union decides autonomously what exploitation level must be set. Fishing opportunities resulting from Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) or negotiated in consultations with Norway and other third countries (shared stocks) are to be dealt with later in the year, when the results of the relevant international negotiations become available.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)608: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:608:FIN

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