It was by the overwhelming majority of 630 votes to 27, with 19 abstentions that the European Parliament, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 16 January, adopted the report by Linnéa Engström (Greens/EFA, Sweden) on the European Commission proposal for the incorporation into EU law of the management, conservation and control measures recently adopted by the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), to which the European Union is a contracting party (see EUROPE 11757).
Inter-institutional negotiations with the Council of the EU will now be able to get underway.
The new measures adopted by the SPRFMO in January 2017 relate mainly to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the management of certain species, ways of reducing sea bird mortality and exploratory fishing.
The regulation will apply to EU vessels fishing in the SPRFMO convention area or which tranship fish caught in the SPRFMO convention area. It will also affect third country fishing vessels entering EU ports carrying fisheries products from the convention area. (Original version in French)