Brussels, 15/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The “omnibus” regulation should only relate to those species subject to the discard ban in 2015 (and not following years). That is the approach that will be argued by Alain Cadec (EPP, France) on Thursday 16 October when he presents his draft report on the landing obligation contained in the new common fisheries policy (CFP) to the European Parliament fisheries committee.
The rapporteur believes that legal alignment for the fisheries subject to the landing obligation after 2015 should be performed subsequently, and in conjunction with the new technical measures framework that the Commission will bring forward in the coming months. Cadec, who chairs the committee, stresses that 2015 will be a test year for assessing the effects of implementing the landing obligation.
He also notes that some of the changes proposed by the Commission go beyond a straightforward alignment with the landing obligation. He therefore proposes that the following changes be deleted as they relate to technical or monitoring measures and not to compatibility with the landing obligation: - provisions requiring that the captains of fishing vessels have sufficient quotas; - the change concerning logbook records; - the general use of remote electronic monitoring (the rapporteur points out that the member states are responsible for monitoring and are therefore free to decide on monitoring arrangements); - the requirement to store catch of less than the minimum conservation reference size in separate containers for each stock.
The Commission also proposes that failure to comply with the landing obligation be included on the list of serious infringements under Regulation 1224/2009 and, therefore, that penalty points be applied for that infringement. The rapporteur is not averse to that approach, but proposes that it be implemented gradually between now and 2019 so as to allow fishing operators time to adapt to it.
Lastly, the rapporteur considers that the Commission proposal does not allow certain undesirable effects of the landing obligation to be prevented. The possible emergence of a parallel market in juvenile organisms that cannot be monitored is a particular cause for concern. He therefore proposes that producer organisations assume greater responsibility for this area as part of the drawing-up of production and marketing plans.
The reform of the common fisheries policy imposes a landing obligation for all catches. This obligation will enter into effect in a stepwise manner over the period 2015 to 2019. Since this landing obligation conflicts with several EU regulations currently in force, the Commission has brought forward a so-called “omnibus” regulation which seeks to amend seven regulations in parallel so as to bring them into line with Article 15 of the basic common fisheries policy regulation. Under the current rules, fishermen have to discard any non-marketable catch. This situation is at odds with the landing obligation and must therefore be remedied.
The rapporteur believes that the changes brought in by the “omnibus” regulation must be strictly limited to implementation of the landing obligation in those fisheries affected on 1 January 2015: - small pelagic fisheries (that is, fisheries targeting mackerel, herring, horse mackerel, blue whiting, boar fish, anchovy, argentine, sardine and sprat); - larger pelagic fisheries (which target bluefin tuna, swordfish, albacore, bigeye tuna, blue marlin and white marlin); - industrial fisheries (targeting capelin, sandeel and Norway pout); - fisheries targeting salmon in the Baltic Sea; - those species which define fishing activity in the Baltic Sea, other than those above.
Cadec's report could be adopted by the fisheries committee at the start of December and be put to the vote in the European Parliament in January. (LC)