Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down management, conservation and control measures applicable in the Convention Area of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1936/2001, (EC) No 1984/2003 and (EC) No 520/2007

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), to which the European Union is a Contracting Party, is the Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) responsible for the management of ICCAT species in the Atlantic Ocean and adjoining seas. ICCAT adopts new conservation, control and enforcement measures every year. This proposal aims at transposing into EU law the measures adopted by ICCAT since 2008, with the exception of the multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, which is subject to a separate transposition process.

ICCAT has the authority to adopt compulsory decisions ('recommendations') for the conservation and management of the fisheries under its purview. These acts are essentially addressed to the ICCAT Contracting Parties but also contain obligations for operators (e.g. the vessel master). The ICCAT recommendations enter into force six months following their adoption and are binding for Contracting Parties and, in the case of the EU, must be enacted into European law to the extent to which they are not already covered by EU legislation.

The relevant EU legislation has substantially evolved since the last transposition with the adoption of the Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 establishing a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the common fisheries policy, Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 establishing a Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Common Fisheries Policy. For reasons of clarity, parts of Council Regulation (EC) No 1936/2001 and of Council Regulation (EC) No 520/2007 referred to above will be repealed to take account of the many changes adopted since 2008.

Fishing opportunities for the EU decided by ICCAT will not be covered by this proposal in the light of Article 43(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which provides that the adoption of measures on fixing prices, levies, aid and quantitative limitations and on the fixing and allocation of fishing opportunities is a prerogative of the Council.

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)401: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:401:FIN

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