The Agriculture & Fisheries Council will meet in Luxembourg on Monday 14 April (starting at 11 a.m.), under the Presidency of Mr Iztok Jarc, Slovenian Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food. Commissioners Joe Borg, Mariann Fischer Boel and Androulla Vassiliou will represent the Commission at the meeting. The points on the agenda are:
Fisheries
Adaptation of Polish quotas for Baltic cod
Council will discuss with a view to reaching political agreement on the Commission’s proposal for a Council regulation to adapt the cod fishing quotas allocated to Poland in the eastern Baltic over the period 2008-2011. Based on official catch reports, the Polish quota for eastern Baltic cod in 2007 was exceeded by 8000 tonnes. The main reasons for this overshoot were a deficient control and enforcement scheme and a fleet whose capacity to catch cod is too large for the available fishing opportunities. Given the Polish authorities’ commitment to remedying this situation, and the severe socio-economic consequences which would be suffered by the Polish fishing fleet if it were required to pay back the entire overshoot in a single year, the Commission has proposed that the payback be staggered over four years, from 2008 to 2011. This arrangement, however, is conditional on Poland ensuring that last year’s overfishing will not be repeated and taking adequate action to improve control and enforcement in this fishery, as well as reducing fleet overcapacity. Progress towards these goals will be subject to annual review. Under the arrangement proposed by the Commission, Poland will pay back 10% of the amount overfished in 2008, and a further 30% in each of the years 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Deterring illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
Last October, the Commission proposed a Council regulation aimed at eliminating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities by attacking the main driver behind them: short-term profit. The proposed measures would allow access to the EU market only to fisheries products that have been certified as legal by the flag state or the exporting state concerned. A European black list of IUU vessels and of states which turn a blind eye to IUU activities would be set up, as would deterrent sanctions against IUU activities in EU waters and against EU operators engaged in IUU activities anywhere in the world. As one of the major fishing powers and as the largest market in fisheries products in the world, the EU has a major role to play in stamping out IUU fishing. Products from IUU imports into the EU have been conservatively estimated at over € 1.1 billion.
Council will hold its first political debate on the Commission’s proposal. The discussion is expected to focus on the proposed certification system, on the measures to penalise IUU fishing, and whether the Regulation should apply equally to Member State vessels or only to non-EU vessels. IUU fishing is one of the Slovenian Presidency’s priorities in the field of fisheries, and the Presidency aims to reach political agreement on the proposed Regulation at the next fisheries Council meeting in June.
Review of the cod recovery plan
The Commission will present its recently-adopted proposal to amend the cod recovery plan which has been in place since 2004 (IP/08/493). Recent scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) concludes that the current measures have been inadequate to reduce fishing pressure on cod to the point where it could allow the stock to recover. Of the four cod stocks concerned, only North Sea cod has shown some limited signs of potential improvement due to better abundance of juvenile fish. The main changes proposed by the Commission include new objectives based on fishing mortality rates, rather than on stock biomass targets, simplification of the fishing effort management system, and a more flexible approach in adapting the rate of fishing pressure reduction to different stages of recovery. Member States will be able to develop specific mechanisms to encourage the reduction of discards and the application of cod-avoidance programmes. The plan would also be extended to cover the Celtic Sea cod stock. The Commission’s proposal is based on the collective experience of implementing the plan over the last three years, and on the opinions of stakeholders as summarised in the symposium on cod recovery held in March 2007.
AOB
2006-2008 Action Plan for simplifying and improving the Common Fisheries Policy
The Commission will make a progress report to Council on its efforts to simplify and improve the Common Fisheries Policy over the last six months, in line with the December 2005 Action Plan (IP/05/1551). This Plan was the first such sectoral action plan to be adopted as part of the Commission-wide process aimed at encouraging better regulation. With the full support of stakeholders, the plan identified a series of priority initiatives concentrated on two key areas – conservation and control. The Commission has agreed to present a progress review to Council twice a year, once in the course of each Presidency. Progress during the last six months continues to be in line with the provisions of the action plan, and the Commission is now looking ahead to how the work of simplification can be continued beyond the end of 2008.
Fisheries Partnership Agreement with Mauritania
In March, the European Commission acting on behalf of the EU agreed a new protocol under the Fisheries Partnership Agreement with Mauritania for the period 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2012 (ME/08/0314). This new protocol is better adapted to Mauritania’s current needs in terms of sustainable development of its national fisheries sector, and also takes into account the changes in the European fleet operating in Mauritanian waters. It aims in particular at strengthening investment, including by European businesses, in the Mauritanian fisheries industry. The two Parties agreed substantial reductions in European fishing effort on sensitive species in order to reflect recent scientific advice. As a result, the overall annual tonnage allocated to the EU fleet will fall from the current 440,000 tonnes to 250,000 tonnes. The EU financial contribution has also been reduced to € 75.25 million per year from € 86 million under the previous protocol. At the same time, the amount earmarked for the development of the national fisheries sector and to promote sustainable fisheries in Mauritanian waters has been substantially increased to € 16.25 million from € 10 million.
The terms of the new protocol reflect the negotiating mandate delivered by Council last December. The Commission will inform Council of the outcome of the negotiations, and the action now needed in order to ensure the timely entry into force of the new protocol.
Bluefin tuna
The Commission will inform the Council on the recently-launched EU control campaign which is designed to prevent a repeat of last year’s overfishing of Mediterranean bluefin tuna by a number of EU Member States (IP/08/448). Bluefin tuna is subject to a multi-annual recovery plan agreed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) in November 2006. The plan foresees the progressive reduction of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for this stock, together with a number of technical measures, and a comprehensive scheme of joint international inspections. This plan formally came into force during 2007, but the EU failed to respect its quota during the 2007 fishing season (IP/07/1355 and IP/07/1399). The Commission will underline to Council the vital importance of preventing a repeat of the overfishing witnessed last year, and will outline the measures which it has put in place to strengthen control and enforcement, in particular the Joint Deployment Plan (JDP) coordinated by the Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA). The JDP marks an unprecedented effort to restore order to this fishery, in terms of both the scale of operations, and the technical means deployed. The Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery is plagued by huge overcapacity in a fleet that keeps growing in size and efficiency both in the EU and in the other coastal states involved.
