position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing specific conditions to fishing for deep-sea stocks in the North-East Atlantic and provisions for fishing in international waters of the North-East Atlantic and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2347/2002

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

2012/0179 (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 a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing specific conditions to fishing for deep-sea stocks in the North-East Atlantic and provisions for fishing in international waters of the North-East Atlantic and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2347/2002

1.Background

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and to the Council

(document COM(2012) 371 final – 2012/0179 COD): 19 July 2012 Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee: 13 February 2013 Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 10 December 2013 Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 24 October 2016 Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 18 October 2016

2.Objective of the proposal from the Commission

The deep-sea fisheries in the North-East Atlantic are partly dominated by traditional coastal fleets (Portugal) and large nomadic trawlers (France, Spain). Altogether they account for approximately 1% of landings from the North-East Atlantic. The economy of a number of fishing communities depends to a certain extent on deep-sea fisheries. The fisheries are pursued in Union waters and in international waters governed by agreements within the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC).

Deep-sea stocks are fish stocks caught in waters beyond the main fishing grounds of continental shelves. They are distributed on the continental slopes or associated with seamounts. Deep-sea fisheries have only since 2003 been subject to detailed management on fishing opportunities (total allowable catch, maximum fishing effort). Before this, the fishery developments were largely unregulated and partly showed typical symptoms of the "race to fish" problem, resulting in the depletion of stocks.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2347/2002 established specific access requirements and associated conditions for fishing deep-sea stocks. However, with the time these measures proved not to be sufficiently constraining and could no longer ensure sustainable management of the stocks. In addition, they did not address the issue of preventing significant adverse impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems.

In 2007 and 2010 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolutions 61/105 and 64/72, which called on States and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations to ensure the protection of vulnerable deep-sea marine ecosystems from the impact of bottom fishing gears, as well as sustainable exploitation of deep-sea fish stocks.

NEAFC measures in the area of deep-sea fishing which were adopted and transposed into Union law comprise the ban of gillnets, closed areas to protect benthic habitats which represent main sources of biodiversity (vulnerable marine ecosystems), the capping of total annually expended fishing effort, and the mapping of the existing fishing activity with the purpose of making new fisheries conditional on a prior environmental impact assessment.

The general objective of the proposal is to ensure as much as possible the sustainable exploitation of deep-sea stocks while reducing the environmental impact of these fisheries, and to improve the information base for scientific assessment. As long as data and method have not achieved the required level allowing MSY-based management, the fisheries have to be managed according to the precautionary approach to fisheries management.

In order to reduce the destructive impact on the marine ecosystem, the Proposal provided that the use of bottom trawls should be phased out in this fishery, as they are most harmful to vulnerable marine ecosystems and have shown high levels of undesired catch of deep-sea species. The transitional restrictions on bottom-set gillnets in fisheries below 600m depth and in the depth-range 200-600m should be accompanied by a prohibition to target deep-sea species.

As the Proposal provided for a phase-out of bottom gears, it did not include specific measures for preventing significant impacts to vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) or closures of areas where such ecosystems are present.

The proposal also considered the opportunity to simplify the management system for these stocks, currently subject to a double instrument: catch limitations and capacity/effort limitation.

It should be noted that the legal framework has evolved since the submission of the Commission Proposal: the Common fisheries Policy (CFP) has been reformed and the new "Basic Begulation" entered into force on 1 January 2014.

3.Comments on the position of the Council

3.1. General comments on Council position:

The position of the Council reflects the political agreement reached by the European Parliament and the Council on 30 June 2016. The Commission supports this agreement.