# EUR-Lex - 52013PC0732 - EN

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# 52013PC0732

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of the Regulation (EU) No .../2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1184/2006 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 /* COM/2013/0732 final - 2011/0194 (COD) */**

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2011/0194 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union
concerning the

position of the Council on the adoption of
the Regulation (EU) No .../2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council
on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products,
amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1184/2006 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and
repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000

1.           Background

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and to the Council (document COM(2011) 416 final – 2011/0194 (COD): || 13 July 2011.

Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee: || 28 March 2012.

Date of the opinion of the Committee of the Regions: || 4 May 2012.

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: || 12 September 2012.

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: || .

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: || 17 October 2013.

2.           Objective of the proposal
from the Commission

The aim of
this proposal is to contribute to the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy
reform, and in particular to the sustainable management of fisheries and
aquaculture resources. The Common Market Organisation (CMO) in Fishery and
Aquaculture products intends to simplify the current legislation and reduce
administrative burden, to implement a new intervention logic, to enhance the
role of Producer Organisations (POs) and to better inform consumers.

3.           Comments on the position
of the Council

3.1         General comments on
Council position:

The Commission
agrees with the Council position, as the compromise political agreement between
the European Parliament and the Council maintains the main lines of the
Commission's proposal, namely, 1) the simplification of legislation, procedures
and reporting obligations, as well as the reduction of administrative burden
for operators, national administrations and the Commission, 2) the immediate elimination
of withdrawal mechanisms of fish from the market and introduction of one single
storage aid mechanism for fishery products intended for human consumption, 3)
the empowerment of the POs to play a greater role in collective planning and
management of fishery and aquaculture activities to achieve sustainable fishing
and aquaculture policy, including the elimination of discards.

3.2         Amendments by the European
Parliament at first reading:

The European Parliament introduced 146
amendments on all parts of the Commission proposal. During trilogues, EP
amendments were reviewed and negotiated. Some have been fully integrated in the
Council position at first reading. This is the case for amendments 1, 7, 30,
89, 104, 130, 131 and 134, as well as the one concerning the fishing gear.

For the majority of EP amendments, the
Council position is formulated in such a way that it represents the thrust of the
Parliament's position. This has been the case for amendments 2, 3, 23 27, 29, 32,
36, 38, 39, 74, 97, 111, 113, 128, 133, 135, 139. Amendment 123 creates the
obligation for the Commission to submit a feasibility report on options for an
eco-label scheme.

Amendments 43 and 44 removed the measure
concerning the distribution by POs of landed products free of charge to
philanthropic or charitable purposes.

3.3         New provisions introduced
by the Council and Commission position in this regard

The Council introduced new provisions
concerning the functioning of POs and inter-branch organisations (new Art. 18
a), the mandatory information (Art. 42 points 2 to 5) and the commercial
designation (Art. 43, points 2 and 3).

Council removed Art. 38 related the
collective fund.

The Commission can accept these changes as
these do not alter the main objective of the Commission proposal. However, it
regrets the deletion of 4 articles providing for delegated acts which would
have enabled the Commission to react flexibly to the steadily changing
situations on the market and would have allowed the Commission to bring more
details of technical nature in the rules to be adopted to provide the sector
with more precision about the obligations they have to observe (Art. 24 concerning
the conditions for recognition of POs and rules of checks to be carried out by
Member States, Art. 33 related to the content of production and marketing
plans, Art. 41 on the definition of common marketing standards and Art. 46
concerning mandatory information to consumers and definition of minimum
criteria for voluntary information).

The Council also introduced a new Art. 53a
concerning the continuation of the current rules establishing common marketing
standards. In the absence of delegated acts on the definition of the standards,
this provision is appropriate to specify that the acts currently in force will
continue to apply.

3.4         Problems encountered in
the adoption of the position at first reading and Commission position in this
regard:

During the finalisation of negotiations, the
co-legislators have extended the implementing powers to the form of
applications for recognition of POs and to the format and structure of the
production and marketing plans, respectively. The Commission can accept this
extension on grounds that it
does not supplement any provision of the co-decision act but rather facilitates
the uniform implementation of the CMO.

The
Commission considers that the reform of CMO has missed an opportunity to
further improve the information to consumers about fishery and aquaculture
products by removing the provisions for the "date of catch/harvest"
and for the labelling requirements for preserved and prepared products
(commercial designation and provenance).

4.           Conclusion

The Commission can agree with the Council
position which is the outcome of the negotiations with the European Parliament.
Nevertheless, the
Commission makes a statement in relation to certain provisions on labelling,
which is the following:

The Commission regrets that the agreement
between the co-legislators have removed from the Commission's proposal the
obligation to indicate the "date of catch" and the "date of
harvest" for fishery and aquaculture products, respectively. The
Commission considers that these dates provide essential information for
consumers. The indication of dates of catch and harvest clearly benefit Union's
small-scale fishers and farmers, and promote short distribution channels for
fishery and aquaculture products.The Commission also regrets that the
co-legislators have removed from the Commission's proposal the application of
certain labelling requirements to preserved and prepared products, i.e.
commercial name, production method and provenance. The Commission believes that these requirements respond to the growing public
demand for information about the content of preserved
and prepared products. This is also an essential matter
for the credibility and value of Union's production.

The Commission would like to reiterate that
the above labelling improvements proposed by the Commission would not impose
any disproportionate burden on the fishing industry as they build on the
existing traceability requirements.

The Commission does not agree with the
change introduced by the lawyer linguists to Article 42(1)(e) of the text of
the political agreement reached at the informal trilogue on 8 May 2013 on
the Commission's proposal for a regulation on the common organisation of the
markets in fishery and aquaculture products (new Article 35(1)(e) of document
12005/13). The Commission’s position is that, as agreed during the informal
trilogue on 8 May 2013, appropriate marking or labelling should indicate the
date of minimum durability, without any further qualification, for all fishery
and aquaculture products referred to in Article 42(1) (new Article 35(1) of
document 12005/13) offered for sale to the final consumer. Introducing the
words “where appropriate” at the end of Article 42(1)(e) (new Article 35(1)(e)
of document 12005/13) will create legal uncertainty and jeopardise reaching the
objective of improving transparency for consumers.