Brussels, 23/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Member states' representatives to the EU reached agreement on Wednesday 22 February on a Council position on the proposal for a multiannual plan for the western horse mackerel stock. The Council position must still be formally adopted next week and negotiations will be opened with the European Parliament (EP) to reach agreement: it is hoped a trialogue meeting will take place at the start of March. Discussion of the horse mackerel management plan have been at a standstill for almost two years because of an institutional dispute over the proper legal basis for adopting the catch rules that feature in the Commission proposal (Article 43(2) or Article 43(3) of the Treaty in full or in part).
Article 43(2) of the Treaty states that the EP and Council, acting in line with the ordinary legislative procedure, should establish the necessary provisions for the pursuit of the objectives of the common fisheries policy (CFP), whereas Article 43(3) says that the Council, acting on a Commission proposal, should adopt the measures on setting and allocating fishing opportunities.
The Council position incorporates the compromise put forward by the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which was discussed in the COREPER meeting of 23 November 2011, on the legal aspects of the proposal: - retention of Article 43(2) as the legal basis of the proposal; - setting a stock management objective expressed in mortality rate and based on achieving the maximum sustainable yield (new Article 4); - deletion of the stock harvest rule. This compromise, the Council believes, means that there is no infringement of the powers of any of the institutions and that there is compliance with the Treaty which states that CFP objectives should be set through the co-decision procedure with fishing opportunities to be set solely by the Council. (LC/transl.rt)