The Agriculture & Fisheries Council will meet in Brussels on Monday 26 (starting at 11 a.m.) and Tuesday 27 November, under the Presidency of Mr Jaime Silva, Minister for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries. Commissioners Mariann Fischer Boel (Agriculture and Rural Development) and Joe Borg (Fisheries and Maritime Affairs) will represent the Commission at the meeting.
Ministers are invited for lunch by the Presidency on Monday. Discussion theme: "Exchange of views on GMOs". Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou will also participate in this debate.
The points on the agenda are:
Fisheries
The fisheries points will be dealt with on Tuesday, where Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner Joe Borg will be present.
Multi-annual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean
The Commission hopes that political agreement will be reached during this Council on a multi-annual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
On 3 April, the Commission adopted a proposal to transpose into Community law, on a permanent basis, the recovery measures for bluefin tuna recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at its annual meeting in November 2006 in Dubrovnik, Croatia (MEX/07/0403). The 15-year recovery plan was adopted on the basis of scientific advice that the Eastern stock was seriously overfished, and that the fishery could collapse if urgent measures were not taken. Of particular concern was the failure of reporting and control in the fishery, which led scientists to estimate that actual catches could be as much as 50% more than those reported.
The plan foresees a gradual reduction in the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of Bluefin tuna from 32,000 tonnes in 2006 to 25,500 tonnes in 2010. It also establishes important extension of the closed seasons when bluefin tuna fisheries are prohibited and a substantial increase in the authorised minimum landing size from 10 to 30Kg. Control is being strengthened by putting in place a joint international inspection scheme which, for the very first time, will allow for inspections by one contracting party of any contracting party’s vessel on the high seas. This will be accompanied by a global control system covering every step of the process, from the catch to the market through to landing, transhipping and caging operations, based on a new catch documentation scheme. To avoid overfishing the contracting parties are required to adjust their fishing effort to the fishing possibilities fixed in accordance with the plan.
All vessels fishing for bluefin tuna will have to be registered, as will all traps, thus allowing for a clear picture of the fishing capacity. The use of aircraft to spot aggregations of bluefin tuna is now banned throughout the year, as is the transhipment of bluefin tuna at sea for purse seiners. In addition, all landings of bluefin tuna or transfers to cages for fattening will be subject to prior notification and strict control measures. The control scheme also provides for an observer scheme for both fishing vessels and tuna farms. All marketing of and trade in bluefin tuna and related products which are not accompanied by the necessary documents to guarantee their origin, which were not caught by authorised vessels, or which do not in some other way comply with the provisions of the management plan, is henceforth banned. Recreational fisheries will also now be regulated, with a maximum catch limit of one bluefin tuna per fishing trip.
Meeting in Antalya, Turkey, earlier this month, ICCAT reaffirmed its commitment to implementing the recovery plan for bluefin tuna as rigorously as possible, and introduced new requirements for contracting parties to notify ICCAT in advance of the 2008 fishing season of the legal instruments through which they have transposed the plan. Contracting parties also need to report on their implementation of the plan at the end of season, in advance of the 2008 ICCAT annual meeting (IP/07/1712). The permanent transposition of the ICCAT recovery plan is now necessary if the EU is to meet its international commitments, and to provide the tools to ensure that the problems of implementation encountered in 2007 are not repeated in 2008.
EU-Norway annual consultations on fishing possibilities for 2008
The EU and Norway have had a bilateral Fisheries Agreement since 1980, covering the fisheries on joint stocks in the North Sea. Some of these stocks are jointly managed (cod, haddock, herring, plaice, saithe, whiting and mackerel), while others such as anglerfish, horse mackerel, Norway pout and sandeel are not. Annual Total Allowable Catches (TACs) are set jointly by the EU and Norway for the jointly managed stocks. The reciprocal exchange of quotas needs to be in overall balance across the Agreement. Commissioner Borg will inform the Council of the results of the annual negotiations with Norway, the second round of which is due to be concluded on 26 November.
2006-2008 Action Plan for simplifying and improving the Common Fisheries Policy
The Commission will present 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. This Plan was the first such sectoral action plan to be adopted as part of the Commission-wide process aimed at encouraging better regulation. Detailed actions were drawn up based on both the Council’s Conclusions and an extensive consultation process with Member States and the fishing industry. With the full support of stakeholders, the plan identified a series of priority initiatives concentrated on two key areas – conservation and control. The Commission presents a progress review to Council twice a year, once in the course of each Presidency.
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU)
Commissioner Borg will present the Commission’s major policy initiative of 17 October aimed at eliminating illegal fishing activities by closing off access to the markets upon which operators benefiting form illegal fishing depend for their profits. This is the first time the Council will hold a formal debate in the Commission’s package of proposals for enhancing the fight against unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, only one moth after a high level conference organised by the Portuguese Presidency had brought together some 40 Ministers and senior representatives from the European Union, the EEA, Africa and Australia to discuss the Commission’s initiative, with a particular focus on its trade and markets measures (IP/07/1623).
Ignoring all rules, IUU fishing depletes fish stocks, destroys marine habitats, distorts competition for honest fishermen and weakens coastal communities, particularly in developing countries. 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. The fight against illegal fishing is part of the EU drive to ensure the sustainable use of the sea which underpins the proposed integrated maritime policy recently adopted by the Commission.
The main plank of the proposal is the systematic introduction of port state control measures. Under these, the port state would only grant access to the EU market for fisheries products, both fresh and processed, that have been certified as legal by the flag state or exporting state concerned. Additionally, 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.
The Portuguese Presidency will report on the outcome of the high-level conference on eradicating IUU fishing which it hosted jointly with the Commission in Lisbon at the end of October.
