> Draft agenda

More information
Meeting documents will be available on the Committee website a few days before the meeting.

Watch the committee meeting live on the Committee website.

Highlights on the agenda:
- CFP Reform, basic regulation and market organisation: vote to approve texts negotiated in trilogues with Council.
- European Eel: Vote on a report aiming at adapting the eel regulation to the provisions of the Lisbon treaty, in which MEPs have also tabled amendments calling on the Commission for further action to protect the eel and evaluate restocking measures.
- Deep-sea fishing: presentation of updated impact assessment.

MEPs approve texts on #CMO and #CFPreform as agreed w/ Council for early 2nd reading agreement vote (both 20+ 1- 0 abst.) #Fisheries

— PECH Committee Press (@EP_Fisheries) June 18, 2013

The fisheries committee in the European Parliament on Tuesday 18 June approved the early second reading agreements on the two first files in the fisheries reform: the basic regulation and the common market organisation (CMO). (This article was updated after the vote 18 June)

Both the CMO regulation and the basic regulation were adopted by the committee with 20 votes in favour, 1 against and 0 abstentions.

Coreper endorsed both texts on Friday 14 June.

After approval at this stage, if the Council approves the texts in first reading, after legal-linguistic revision, the Parliament will prepare adoption of the same text in early second reading. The submission to Council of these texts can be expected by the end of September or early October this year, according to a Council press release.

These texts are the results of trilogue negotiations between the Council and Parliament.

Download the documents:
> Basic regulation consolidated text 14.6.2013
> CMO regulation consolidated text 13.6.2013

Axel Naver

> Information about European Fish Weeks 2012.

Note: Come back to this article! We will upload the compromise amendments here as soon as they are available.

In January MEPs tabled more than 2000 amendments on Alain Cadec’s (EPP, FR) report on the European Maritime and Fisheries fund (EMFF).

The compromise amendments agreed today among a group of shadow rapporteurs (one MEP from each group) are the result of negotiations over the last five months. The compromises will facilitate the voting in the fisheries committee by reducing the total number of amendments to be voted on.

The compromise amendments will be sent to translation next week in order to be available in all languages ahead of the committee vote, which is scheduled for 10 July.

The compromises, which Alain Cadec expects will get majority support in the fisheries committee, include proposals that would allow public money to be spent on the construction of new vessels (replacing old vessels), on new engines and on temporary cessation of fishing activities. The compromises include an objective that these measures shall not increase the fishing capacity.

Alain Cadec told shadow rapporteurs that he will seek a mandate from the fisheries committee to start trilogue negotiations with the Council before the first reading in plenary. Given that the plenary may make changes to the report adopted in committee, it will have important implications whether the rapporteur negotiates with the Council on the basis of a mandate from the committee or the plenary.

Read previous articles on the EMFF:
Public money for public benefit in the fisheries reform
New EU fishing subsidy scheme will have global repercussions
Council deal on fisheries fund criticised for boosting overfishing

Axel Naver

Download the programme

> Draft agenda

More information
Meeting documents will be available on the Committee website a few days before the meeting.

Watch the committee meeting live on the Committee website.

Highlights on the agenda:

Votes on:
- EU-Mauritania: protocol setting out fishing opportunities and the financial contribution provided for in the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the two Parties currently in force
- A strategy for fisheries in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas: VOTE POSTPONED
- Measures for the recovery of European eel stocks: VOTE POSTPONED TO JUNE MEETING

Other
- Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy: Report back on trilogues
- Public hearing on “Maritime Spatial Planning – An opportunity for sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture”

At 3:30 in the morning 30 May, the European Parliament and Council reached political agreement on the main points in the basic regulation in the fisheries reform.

Update 3 June: The provisional consolidated text agreed during the trilogues is now available. (Please note that this only covers the articles discussed during the trilogues 28–29 May.)

The deal still needs formal approval of Coreper and the European Parliament plenary. There are also several articles in the basic regulation where technical details remain to be sorted out.

During the triologues of 28–29 May, which spilled over into the morning of 30 May, the co-legislators have reached agreements on issues such as MSY, discards, the external dimension, access criteria and fleet capacity.

What has actually been agreed? “It is a mess,” a parliament official admitted Thursday morning. Several different wordings have circulated during the trialogue and it will take some time for officials to compile a consolidated version of the agreement. (Update 3 June: provisional consolidated version now available.)

Some things are clear, though:

• On discards (article 15), the deal is identical to the Council’s new position from 15 May.
• The Parliament got approval for its demand that when distributing fishing opportunities, member states shall use shall use transparent and objective criteria including those of an environmental, social and economic nature, such as the impact of the fishery on the environment, the history of compliance, the contribution to the local economy and historic catch levels (article 16).
• In the external dimension of the CFP, EU vessels will now only get access to surplus of fish in third countries and there are new measures to prevent flag hopping, in line with the resolution on the external dimension adopted by the European Parliament in November 2012.
• Parliament got support for new control measures, by establishing a new compliance committee.
• Council also ceded to the Parliament on issues such as article 36 (transparency in fishing fleet register) and article 37 (data requirements).
• On ending overfishing and rebuilding fish stocks (article 2), there is now a target to rebuild fish stocks above biomass levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). Somewhat ambiguously, the article does not state explicitly that fishing mortality must be set at levels lower than the corresponding Fmsy. The Council wording remains, that Fmsy shall be applied by 2015 “where possible” and no later than 2020 for all stocks. Parliament got support for a new recital that specifies that those catch levels can be postponed later than 2015 only in cases that would seriously jeopardise the social and economic sustainability of the fishing fleets involved.

Some reactions and comments:

Institutions
European Parliament press release
Commission press release
Council press relsease
Irish presidency press release
Watch the press conference 30 May. (Watch the press conference at BBC, in another video format)

Political groups
S&D press release
Alde press release
Greens press release

NGOs
Europêche press release
Greenpeace press release
WWF press release
Ocean2012 comment

Axel Naver

While the Council claims that the new position they adopted 15 May makes significant concessions towards the parliament, MEPs do not agree.

”In spite of claims to the opposite, EU governments are moving in the wrong direction and are trying to wriggle out of putting the CFP on a sustainable footing. The latest Council mandate is even less ambitious in a number of key areas,” Green MEP Isabella Lövin said in a statement on Monday.

MEPs from the group Fish For the Future sent a letter to the Parliament’s rapporteur, Ulrike Rodust, calling on her not to accept the Council’s latest proposals without changes:

”For all that the Council claims to have moved towards Parliament the position it has taken is in too many respects far removed from that of MEPs. It omits key elements and substitutes legally binding commitments with platitudes. Were the CFP Basic Regulation to be adopted in this form it would be regarded as a severe disappointment and a missed opportunity.” the MEPs wrote.

Ulrike Rodust on Monday sent a letter to the Irish presidency with a number of key requests fo new compromises.

Trilogue negotiations with Council, Commission and Parliament are scheduled for Tuesday 28 May (18.30–21.00) and Wednesday 29 May (20:30–23:00).

Axel Naver

Vendredi 24 mai 2013 à 8h30
Lieu :  Bureau d’information du Parlement européen en France
288, boulevard Saint-Germain
75007 Paris

Lancé en juillet 2011 par la Commissaire européenne Maria Damanaki, le processus de réforme de la PCP a depuis franchi une étape importante avec l’adoption du rapport d’Ulrike Rodust par le Parlement européen le 6 février dernier. La réforme est donc actuellement en cours de négociation entre le Conseil de l’UE et le Parlement européen. La Présidence irlandaise de l’UE a récemment fait part de son souhait de voir aboutir les discussions d’ici fin juin 2013.

• Comment s’explique le rejet par le Parlement européen et les Etats de la libéralisation des quotas de pêche proposée par la Commission européenne dans son projet initial ?
• L’objectif de respect du rendement maximal durable dès 2015 pour une reconstitution des stocks à l’horizon 2020 constitue-t-il un objectif satisfaisant et tenable ?
• Quelles évolutions dans la définition des quotas de pêche : quels critères et quel processus de décision ?
• Le Parlement européen approuve l’interdiction des rejets à partir de 2014 : quelle mise en œuvre de cette mesure et quelles conséquences pour le secteur ?
• Où en sommes-nous dans la régionalisation de la PCP ?
• Quelle prise en compte par le Feamp de l’obligation de réduction des flottes en surcapacité ?

Intervenants :
Jean-Paul Besset – Député européen (Groupe des Verts)
Cécile Bigot – Directrice des pêches maritimes et de l’aquaculture, Ministère de l’Ecologie, du Développement Durable et de l’Energie
Peter Andreas Gullestad – Specialist Director, Directions des Pêches, Ministère norvégien de la Pêche et les Affaires Côtières
Franz Lamplmair – Conseiller du directeur de la conception des politiques, DG Mare, Commission européenne
Olivier Le Nezet – Président du Comité des Pêches de Bretagne
Elise Petre – Chargée de programme « Pêche Durable », WWF France
Modération : Jean-Sébastien Lefebvre, journaliste, EurActiv.fr

Déroulé :
8h15 – 8h30 : Accueil et petit-déjeuner
8h30 – 9h15 : Tour de table des intervenants
9h15 – 10h00 : Questions – Réponses

Inscription
Inscription gratuite obligatoire  dans la limite des places disponibles.

Update 22.5.2013: The revised mandate is now available on the Council website.

Some information on the agreement is available in the Council press release.

As Simon Coveney, the Irish fisheries minister, met MEPs Wednesday morning to brief them about the new mandate, he presented the deal in terms of “take it or leave it”. However, the head of the European Parliament’s negotiating team, Ulrike Rodust, said that the European Parliament still has to give its approval after the Council adopted a revised mandate for further negotiations.

“Ministers have made certain concessions but I would have liked to see a more courageous decision.” Ulrike Rodust said in a press release.

One step forward, one step back
Several fisheries ministers said Wednesday that the Council has moved towards the Parliament on several issues. But that is only half the truth. Sources who have seen the updated mandate say that it actually weakens environmental protection in several ways compared to the Council’s February position.

For example, the new text allows for fishing quotas to be raised mid-year if “fishing opportunities that have been fixed for a specific stock are in significant disparity with the actual state of that stock”.

The revised Council mandate contains some text that moves in the direction of the European Parliament’s position. For example, there are provisions on protected areas, although not as extensive as the Parliament would wish.

MSY
Member states claim to have approached the Parliament by agreeing to have a biomass target – i.e. a goal to rebuild fish stocks to certain sizes. However, the biomass target to rebuild fish stocks to “at least at” levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) existed already in the previous Council position as well as in the Commission’s original proposal.

In reality, according to information available Wednesday morning, Council so far has not yielded to two key demands of the Parliament:
* A target year by which fish stocks should be rebuilt to a certain level.
* Removing the words “where possible”. Council still proposes to end overfishing only “where possible” by 2015 and by 2020 for all stocks, without defining what they mean by “possible”. In fact, it is possible to set fishing quotas that can lead to the rebuilding of fish stocks today.

Discards
Council now proposes to allow 5% discards, instead of 7% as they proposed in February. But the devil is, as usual, in the detail. Other changes in the text may actually imply that the amount of fish thrown back to sea would increase rather than decrease.

The previous text said that the provisions for de minimis exemptions “shall not exceed a total of 7 % of the total annual catches of the species concerned.”

The new next says that “provisions for de minimis exemptions of up to 5% of total annual catches of all species subject to an obligation to land as set out in paragraph 1.”

This may mean that you can actually discard a lot more than 5% of one species (or group of species) in a given fishery as long as you discard less in another – thus weakening the incentives to improve the selectivity of those fisheries with the highest discard rates.

What’s next
The European Parliament’s negotiating team will analyse the new Council text before the negotiations continue.

“I hope that we can come to an agreement on the basis of the Council’s revised mandate in the next weeks, but I cannot guarantee that. This reform is too important for the environment and for the fishermen and therefore cannot be rushed”, said Ulrike Rodust, head of the European Parliament negotiating team.

The forthcoming trilogue meetings (negotiations between the Council and the Parliament, with the European Commission) are scheduled for 28 and 29 May.

Links:
Council press release
Video: Council press conference 6:30 Wednesday morning
European Parliament press release
Simon Coveney press release
Europêche, Eapo &Copa-Cogeca press release
Oceana press release
Greenpeace press release

Axel Naver