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
Date: 2013-10-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: administrative formalities, aquaculture, common organisation of markets, fishery management, fishery product, producer organisation, storage premium

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Brussels, 18.10.2013  
COM(2013) 732 final 

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 

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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. 

3.1 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

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 

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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). 

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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. 

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