Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulations (EU) No 44/2012, (EU) No 39/2013 and (EU) No 40/2013 as regards certain fishing opportunities

Council Regulation (EU) No 44/2012 and Council Regulations (EU) No 39/2013 and 40/2013 fix, for 2012 and 2013 respectively, fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks applicable in EU waters and, for EU vessels, in certain non-EU waters. They focus mainly on Atlantic and North Sea stocks. These fishing opportunities are usually amended several times during the period in which they are in effect.

(a) Regulation (EU) No 44/2012
At the end of 2012, Lithuania agreed to exchange with another country fishing opportunities in the context of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO). The Commission accepted such agreement and notified it to the NAFO Secretariat on 9 January 2013. For reasons of transparency and consistency with other exchanges of fishing opportunities implemented in 2012, Regulation (EU) No 44/2012 should be amended accordingly. This modification does not affect in any way relative stability. Future exchanges of fishing opportunities with third countries will follow the new procedure established by Regulation (EU) No 40/2013.

(b) Regulation (EU) No 39/2013
A mistake is corrected regarding the precise coordinates of the area subject to the TAC for herring in the Firth of Clyde, within ICES subarea VI.

(c) Regulation (EU) No 40/2013
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 2012. The consultations with the Faroe Islands and Iceland were not finalised. Consultations with Norway were postponed to January 2013, so Regulation (EU) No 40/2013 included provisional fishing opportunities for those stocks affected by arrangements with Norway, amounting to a proportion of the 2012 fishing opportunities concerned. The negotiations with Norway were concluded on 18 January 2013. As a consequence, it is necessary to establish the definitive fishing opportunities for the relevant stocks in Annexes IA and IB of Regulation (EU) No 40/2013.

The 9th Annual Meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), held in Manila from 2 to 9 December 2012 adopted new conservation and management measures for bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and skipjack tuna concerning fishing effort limitations, as well as measures on the closed area for fishing with fishg aggregating devices (FADs). WCPFC also agreed on management measures regarding the overlap area between WCPFC and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC). As a result, EU vessels listed in the registers of both organisations will have to comply with the IATTC conservation and management measures set out in the Union's fishing opportunities regulations when fishing in the overlap area. The WCPFC measures should be implemented in the law of the Union.

Two recommendations from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) accord the Union a flexibility, up to a 200 tonnes, as regards catches taken in the South and North management areas (ICCAT recommendations 2011-02 and 2012-01). Annex ID should be amended in order to enable Member States to apply these ICCAT provisions.

New or modified fishing opportunities in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) were established following the outcome of the 1st annual meeting of the SPRFMO Commission held on 28 January – 1 February 2013. The provisional quotas included in Annex IJ of Regulation (EU) No 40/2013 for jack mackerel, the reporting associated with them, and other provisions regarding effort limitations must now be implemented accordingly.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)137: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:137:FIN

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