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 amending Regulation (EC) 1342/2008 of 18 December 2008 establishing a long-term plan for cod stocks and the fisheries exploiting those stocks
Date: 2016-09-30
Institutions: Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission
Subjects: North Sea, authorised catch, catch area, catch by species, conservation of fish stocks, fishing controls, sea fish, sea fishing

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 30.9.2016  COM(2016) 647 final 2012/0236 (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 amending Regulation (EC) 1342/2008 of 18 December 2008 establishing a long-term plan for cod stocks and the fisheries exploiting those stocks  
 
 
2012/0236 (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 amending Regulation (EC) 1342/2008 of 18 December 2008 
establishing a long-term plan for cod stocks and the fisheries exploiting those stocks 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 
(document COM(2012) 498 final – 2012/236 COD): 

12 September 2012. 

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

12 December 2012. 

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

11 June 2013 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

3 October 2016 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

29 September 2016 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

In  2008,  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1342/2008  (the  "Cod  Recovery  Plan")  was  adopted. 
The  plan  covered  the  North  Sea  and  some  adjacent  seas  (Kattegat,  Skagerrak,  eastern 
Channel, west of Scotland and the Irish Sea). Its main elements were rules for setting the total 
allowable catch (TAC) and a fishing effort regime limiting the time fishermen are allowed to 
spend at sea. Fishing effort limitations were perceived, at the time, as a necessary regulatory 
instrument, in addition to setting catch limits in the form of TAC (total allowable catch), in 
order  to  reduce  discarding  of  fish.  The  plan  foresaw  consecutive  and  sometimes  drastic 
reductions in fishing effort. 

In 2012, the Commission proposed an amendment to Council Regulation (EC) No 1342/2008, 
to cater for some shortcomings of the plan while keeping its main elements. The proposal was 
based on Art.  43(2) TFEU and included also a provision which would allow the Council to 
rollover fishing effort after four consecutive reductions. 

Taking a different stand on the relationship between Art. 43(2) and Article 43(3) TFEU, the 
Council  carved  out  certain  elements  of  the  Commission  proposal  (Art.  9  and  Art.  12)  and 
adopted  -  on  the  basis  of  Article  43(3)  TFEU  -  a  corresponding  amending  regulation  to  the 
Cod  Recovery  Plan  (Council  Regulation  (EU)  1243/2012)  without  any  involvement  of  the 
European  Parliament.  The  amending  regulation  took  over  the  rule  to  allow  for  rollovers  in 
effort after four consecutive reductions. 

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The European Parliament and the Commission challenged this Council Regulation in Court, 
stating that the amendment of the Cod Recovery Plan in issue should have been adopted by 
means  of  the  ordinary  legislative  procedure  with  the  full  involvement  of  the  European 
Parliament pursuant to Article 43(2) TFEU and not by means of Council-only powers under 
Article 43(3) TFEU. 

With its judgement of 1st December 2015 in Joined Cases C-124/13, European Parliament v 
Council, and C-125/13, Commission v Council, the Court annulled the Council Regulation in 
issue but maintained its effects for one additional year so that a new regulation - based on the 
correct legal basis of Article 43(2) TFEU - could be adopted within that period of time. 

The fact that the Court allowed the effects of the annulled Council regulation to be maintained 
for one additional year made it necessary to pursue negotiations based on this COM proposal 
as there was not sufficient time to develop a new proposal and adopt it within in one year. 

However,  since  the  COM  proposal  was  issued  in  2012,  circumstances  have  dramatically 
changed.  The  new  Basic  Regulation  of  the  CFP  (Regulation  (EU)  No  1380/2013)  has 
introduced  an  obligation  to  land  by  2019  all  catches  of  species  which  are  subject  to  catch 
limits  ("landing  obligation")  which  obliges  fishermen  to  stop  discarding  and  to  count  all 
catches against their quota shares (the progressive dates of entry into force of this obligation 
depend on the fishery and species defining fishery). Where the landing obligation applies, the 
effort  regime,  which  also  aims  at  reducing  discards,  has  now  become  an  unnecessary 
additional layer of regulation. For this reason, the Commission decided to abandon the effort 
regime in its proposal for a Baltic Sea Management Plan COM((2014)614. 

The new Basic Regulation also introduced a provision which obliges the Council to set TACs 
based on the MSY (maximum sustainable yield) approach. This makes the TAC setting rules 
in the cod recovery plan obsolete. 

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 29 June 2016. The Commission supports this agreement.  

3.2. 

Amendments by the European Parliament at first reading: 

During the negotiations, EP has revised its position. Therefore, the first reading position of EP 

taken on 11 June 2013 was considered as being less relevant for the negotiations. 

3.3. 

Provisions introduced by the Council and Commission position in this regard: 

The  Council  has  significantly  amended  the  text  and  reduced  it  to  very  few  remaining 
provisions (except definitions, closing Articles, etc.): 

 

 

 

Article 5 on objectives, referring to the  MSY objective in line with the Basic 
Regulation and the agreed Baltic MAP; 

Article  6  on  minimum  and  precautionary  measures,  referring  to  the  need  to 
take into account "appropriate minimum and precautionary biomass levels" in 
line with the Basic Regulation, without specifying these levels; 

Article  9  on  setting  TACs  in  data  poor  conditions,  referring  to  the 
precautionary approach set out in the Basic Regulation, without setting out any 
detailed rules; 

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 

 

 

Former  Article  14  was  kept  with  minor  changes.  The  Article  sets  out  an 
obligation for Member States to make sure that in each of the areas covered by 
the plan, the fishing capacity does not exceed the fishing capacity that could be 
observed in 2006 or 2007; 

Article 25 (unchanged): obligation to land cod in designated ports; 

Article  33  (unchanged):  Assistance  under  the  EFF/EMFF:  enabling  payments 
from the EMFF. 

The compromise text departs significantly from the original 2012 COM proposal but it is in 
line with the new rules set in the new Basic Regulation and Commission's new approach for 
the multiannual plans. The Commission can accept all changes. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The legal services and lawyer linguists of European Parliament and Council were mandated to 
make all the relevant adjustments to the text. The resulting document therefore represents the 
political agreement reached by the co-legislators on 29 July 2016.  

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