Proposal for a Council Regulation fixing for 2015 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 and repealing Council Regulation (EU) No 779/2014

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, Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Common Fisheries Policy (“the basic regulation of the CFP”) 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 those plans.

This proposal contains fishing opportunities that the Union establishes autonomously. However, it also features fishing opportunities resulting from agreed measures in multilateral or bilateral fisheries agreements or processes. In those cases, the Union intervenes on the basis of a position stemming from its own policy objectives, as well as scientific advice. The outcome of such negotiations implies the Union's consent to assume obligations vis-à-vis third parties. Therefore, the Union has no substantive margin of discretion beyond the internal allocation among Member States when it comes to implementing such decisions in Union law, i.e. by means of this proposal. As for internal allocation, the principle of relative stability applies.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)670: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:670:FIN

ESO: Background information: Commission proposes fishing opportunities in the Atlantic and North Sea for 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-commission-proposes-fishing-opportunities-in-the-atlantic-and-north-sea-for-2015/

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