Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 43/2014 as regards certain fishing opportunities

Council Regulation (EU) No 43/2014 fixed, for 2014, the fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks applicable in Union waters and, for Union vessels, in certain non-Union waters. This Regulation focuses mainly on Atlantic and North Sea stocks. These fishing opportunities are usually amended several times during the period in which they are in effect.

The proposed amendments seek to modify Regulation 43/2014 as described below.

In accordance with the procedure provided for in the agreements or protocols on fisheries relations with Norway, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, the Union held consultations on fishing rights with those partners during 2013. The consultations with Iceland were not finalised. Consultations with Norway and the Faroe Islands were postponed to January 2014, so Regulation (EU) No 43/2014 included provisional fishing opportunities for those stocks affected by arrangements with Norway and the Faroe Islands. The consultations have been delayed and are yet to be concluded. Therefore, most of the figures in this proposal are provisionally marked as pro memoria (pm); it will be necessary to update them as quickly as possible after the consultations are finalised.

New fishing opportunities in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) were established following the outcome of the 2nd annual meeting of the SPRFMO Commission held on 27-31 January 2014. The provisional quotas included in Annex IJ of Regulation (EU) No 43/2014 for jack mackerel must now be modified accordingly. In addition, SPRFMO redefined the specific area to which effort and catch ceilings for bottom fisheries will apply as of 4 May 2014.

Finally, this proposal caters for a number of errors identified in and clarifies certain points of Regulation (EU) No 43/2014. These amendments are related to certain TAC entries (boarfish, cod, herring, anglerfish, and sole), the Western Channel sole effort management regime (Annex IIC) and a specific reporting obligation in the context of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC).

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)195: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:195:FIN

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