Proposal for a Council Regulation concerning the allocation of fishing opportunities under the Implementation Protocol to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Senegal

The Council authorised the European Commission to negotiate, on behalf of the European Union, the renewal of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Senegal and the European Economic Community on fishing off the coast of Senegal, which entered into force on 1 June 1981, and a Protocol setting out the fishing opportunities and financial contribution. At the end of the negotiations a new draft Agreement and Protocol were initialled by the negotiators on 25 April 2014. The new Agreement repeals and replaces the existing Agreement; it covers a period of five years from its entry into force, renewable by tacit agreement. The new Protocol covers a period of five years from the date of provisional application laid down in Article 12, that being the date on which it was signed by the parties.

The main aim of the new Agreement is to provide an updated framework taking into account the priorities of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy and its external dimension, with a view to establishing a strategic partnership between the European Union and the Republic of Senegal in the field of fisheries.

The aim of the Protocol is to grant fishing opportunities to European Union vessels in Senegalese waters taking into account available scientific assessments, in particular those of the Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF), and in accordance with the best available scientific advice and the recommendations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), within the limits of the available surplus. The Commission based its position in part on the results of a forward-looking assessment, carried out by external experts, of whether a new Agreement and Protocol should be concluded. The aim is also to enhance cooperation between the European Union and the Republic of Senegal to promote a sustainable fisheries policy and sound exploitation of fisheries resources in the Senegalese fishing zones, in the interests of both parties.

The Protocol provides for fishing opportunities in the following categories:
- 28 tuna seiners;
- 8 pole-and-line vessels;
- 2 trawlers (targeting black hake, a deep-sea demersal species).

The method for allocating fishing opportunities among the Member States should be defined. The Commission proposes, on this basis, that the Council adopt the Regulation.

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)547: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:547:FIN

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