On 11 August, the European Commission adopted a proposal intended to extend the empowerment of the Commission to adopt delegated acts establishing “discard plans” (implementation of the ban on fisherman discarding fish) for an additional period of three years.
The Commission explained that it introduced this proposal due to the delayed introduction of the multiannual management plans for certain species of fish. The Commission explained that this extension is necessary for the smooth implementation of the 2013 reform introducing the landing obligation for all catches.
Regulation 1380/2013 introduced the so-called landing obligation, i.e. the progressive obligation to land all catches for stocks under catch limits or under minimum conservation reference size. In principle, the details of the implementation of the landing obligation are to be defined in regional multi-annual management plans adopted through co-decision.
However, since it was expected that the adoption of multi-annual plans would require some time, as a temporary solution, Regulation 1380/2013 provided for the adoption of Commission delegated acts establishing discard plans shaped through joint recommendation of the Member States concerned for a period of no more than three years. Discard plans may contain certain provisions on (certain species covered by the landing obligation, de minimis exemptions, the fixing of minimum conservation reference sizes, etc.).
The first discard plans entered into force on the 1 January 2015 and are expiring at the end of 2017. After the expiration of the initial three years period, Regulation 1380/2013 empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts containing exclusively de minimis exemptions, since, in principle, the multi-annual plans should be used to define the rules of the landing obligation.
To date, only the Baltic multiannual plan is in place, whereas the Commission has made two other proposals (for a multiannual plan for demersals in the North Sea and for small pelagics in the Adriatic). In this context, it is necessary to empower the Commission to adopt discard plans for a further total period of up to three years to facilitate the implementation of the landing obligation. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)