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 amending Regulation (EU) No 1343/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on certain provisions for fishing in the GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean) Agreement area
Date: 2015-07-14
Institutions: Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission
Subjects: Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, catch area, conservation of fish stocks, evaluation of resources, exploitation of resources, fishery resources, fishing agreement, resources of the sea, sustainable development

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 14.7.2015  COM(2015) 354 final 2014/0213 (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 amending Regulation (EU) No 1343/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on certain provisions for fishing in the GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean) Agreement area  
 
 
2014/0213 (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 amending Regulation (EU) No 
1343/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on 
certain provisions for fishing in the GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the 
Mediterranean) Agreement area 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 
(document COM(2014) 457 final – 2014/0213 (COD): 

11.07.2014. 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

15.10.2014. 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

13.01.2015. 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

- 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

13.07.2015. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The  proposal  aims  at  transposing  in  Union  law  a  number  of  measures  adopted  in  the 
framework of the Agreement for the establishment of the General Fisheries Commission for 
the Mediterranean (GFCM) between 2011 and 2013. These measures are already in force and 
binding  on  the  EU  and  the  ten  Member  States  which  are  Contracting  Parties  to  the  GFCM 
Agreement  (Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Cyprus,  France,  Greece,  Italy,  Malta,  Slovenia,  Spain  and 
Romania). To the extent to which the content of the GFCM recommendations is not covered 
or  is  only  partially  covered  by  existing  Union  law,  the  transposition  of  the  relevant  GFCM 
measures is necessary in order to make these measures applicable in a uniform and effective 
manner throughout the Union, including to natural or legal persons.  

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  26  March  2015.  The  Commission  supports  this  agreement. 
Nevertheless, it made two statements which are annexed below. 

3.2. 

Amendments by the European Parliament at first reading: 

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The  European  Parliament  made  25  amendments  at  first  reading.  With  the  exception  of  
amendment 19 (on fishing vessels equipped with trawl nets and purse seines in Geographical 
Sub-areas  17  or  18,  which  the  European  Parliament  agreed  to  withdraw),  all  the  other 
amendments have been  integrated in the Council position with further changes, as a result of 
the trilogue meetings of 2 and 26 March and of the inter-institutional technical meetings of 4 
February and 4 March.  

3.3. 

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

The Council in  its  position has  introduced  a new derogation in  Article 15a,  which concerns 
the  use  of  trawl  nets  in  coastal  waters  of  the  Black  Sea  and  takes  account  of  the  prevailing 
situation in that region. The Commission has no objections. 

3.4. 

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

The  Commission  has  made  two  statements  with  a  view  to  clarify  some  issues  linked  to 
derogations  on  red  coral  and  more  precisely  to  the  adoption  of  national  measures  during  a 
transitional period and to the final date for the use of Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles 
(ROVs) for observation and prospection of red coral. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  legal  services  and  lawyer  linguists  of  both  institutions  were  mandated  to  make  all  the 
relevant adjustments to the text. The resulting document therefore represents the Commission 
proposal as modified and integrated by the political agreement reached by the co-legislators 
on 26 March.  

The  Commission  supports  this  agreement  in  general,  but  wants  to  make  statements  on  two 
specific points of concern. 

5. 

STATEMENTS BY THE COMMISSION  

Transitional national measures 

The  Commission  takes  note  of  the  decision  of  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  to 
allow Member States to keep existing derogations related to red coral harvesting without any 
time limit, and to provide for new derogations to be granted during a transitional period again 
without clear cut-off date. 

The Commission considers that, by their nature, derogations and/or transitional measures can 
only  be  temporary  and  that  the  unlimited  exceptional  regimes  agreed  between  the  co-
legislators may put the Union in a position where it is not able to ensure that its international 
obligations towards the GFCM are fully respected.  

In the event that the above mentioned risks should materialize, the Commission will submit 
proposals for appropriate measures in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Treaty. 

In any event, the Commission emphasises that any decision in this case will not prejudice the 
Commission position in relation to other rules on derogations and/or transitional regimes. 

Final date for use of ROVs 

With  regards  to  the  final  date  of  31/12/2015,  agreed  by  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council  for  authorised  use  of  ROVs  for  observation  and  prospection  of  red  coral,  the 

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Commission takes note of the decision of the co-legislators to interpret the words "until 2015" 
in  paragraph  3a)  of  recommendation  GFCM/35/2011/2,  as  "until  31  December  2015",  thus 
deviating  substantially  from  the  Commission's  proposal  to  consider  only  the  time  period 
before 2015, until 31 December 2014.  

Having  already  stressed  that,  by  their  nature,  derogations  can  only  be  temporary,  the 
Commission  recalls  that  also  the  FAO  Legal  Service  had  expressed  the  view  that  only  the 
time limit before 2015 should be considered. In the light of this, the Commission will assess if 
appropriate initiatives need to be taken in order to clarify the Union's position on the issue of 
ROVs within the GFCM. 

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