Ahead of the interinstitutional negotiations on 21 June, which were ultimately cancelled, the French Presidency of the EU Council had prepared possible compromises on certain important elements of the text on fisheries controls.
Negotiations with the European Parliament will continue under the Czech Presidency of the EU Council, starting on 1 July.
The trilogue on 21 June did not take place, despite offers of compromise made to the European Parliament team by the French Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12976/4).
On the vessel monitoring system (VMS), the French Presidency had planned to grant the flexibility providing for the use of mobile tracking devices for vessels of less than 12 metres (and not to leave this option to the discretion of Member States).
In order to secure the Parliament’s agreement on an exception to the use of VMS for smaller vessels, the new Council mandate provided for a flexibility to propose different criteria for smaller vessels to fall under this exception, in particular a shorter vessel length, e.g. 8 metres instead of 9, and a different geographical area of application, with a distance from the coast of 4 or 3 nautical miles instead of 6.
On the control of the landing obligation, the Council mandate suggested: - granting flexibility to agree on a length of less than 24 metres (e.g. 18 metres, but not less) for ships to be equipped with the remote electronic monitoring (REM) system based on a risk analysis that demonstrates a “high” (not “serious”) risk; - specifying that the REM should consist of on-board cameras (CCTV) or instruments with equivalent effectiveness.
Regarding the VMS, the Council’s initial position was to provide for a simplified system for vessels under 12 metres and an exemption for those under 9 metres (see EUROPE 12750/5). For the European Parliament, all vessels should be equipped with a geolocation tool allowing them to be tracked and identified automatically.
With regard to CCTV, the Council’s initial position was that vessels over 24 metres must, in the event of a serious risk of non-compliance with the rules on landing obligations, install on-board REM systems. The European Parliament advocated CCTV for ships of 12 metres in length or more that pose a high risk of non-compliance. The Commission does not provide for any limits regarding the size of the vessels. It refers to a certain percentage of ships to be equipped with CCTV, after a risk assessment.
Link to the document explaining the Council’s revised mandate on the Control Regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/28l (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)