SP(2009)3060

PURPOSE: to transpose into Community law the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommendation establishing a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 concerning a multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, amending Regulation (EC) No 43/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1559/2007.

CONTENT: the Council adopted a Regulation concerning a multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. The plan transposes into Community law the decisions taken in 2008 by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), to which the Community is a contracting party.

The objective of the recovery plan is to achieve a biomass corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield with greater than 50 % probability.

The recovery plan provides for:

the establishment of national fisheries plans and the attribution of individual quotas to vessels over 24 metres long; the immediate freeze of fishing capacity of EU fleets at 2007-2008 levels before the establishment of programmes to reduce this capacity; the shortening by four months of the fishing season for purse seiners (15 April-15 June); a ban on the use of aircraft or helicopters for searching for bluefin tuna; the establishment of specific quotas for sports and recreational fishing, chargeable to national quotas; a ban on transferring tuna to farms without the prior authorisation of the fishing vessel's flag state; an obligation to make video recordings during fishing and farming activities available to inspectors; the establishment of a strict control framework for joint fishing operations.

Each Member State shall submit each year by 15 September to the Commission a detailed report on its implementation of the Regulation.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 18/04/2009.

Regulation 2009/302
OJ L 096 15.04.2009, p. 0001

Results of vote in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted by 540 votes to 53, with 14 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending, under the consultation procedure, the proposal for a Council regulation concerning a multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

The main amendments were as follows:

Definitions : “joint fishing operation” means any operation between two or more catching vessels flying the flag of different CPCs or of different Member States or by vessels flying the same flag where the catch of one catching vessel is attributed to one or more other catching vessels in accordance with an allocation key.

Conditions relating to fishing possibilities : the flag Member State shall suspend the licence to fish for bluefin tuna and may require the vessel to proceed immediately to a port designated by it when the individual quota is deemed to be exhausted.

Landings : by way of derogation from Article 7 of Regulation (EEC) No 2847/93, the master of a Community fishing vessel referred to in Article 14 of this Regulation or his representative shall notify the competent authority of the Member State (including the flag Member State) or the CPC whose ports or landing facility they wish to use at least four hours before the estimated time of arrival at the port or, if the distance to port is shorter, at the end of the fishing operations and prior to starting the return journey .

Transhipment : prior to entry into any port, the master or the representative of the transhipping fishing vessel shall provide the competent authorities of the State whose port he wants to use at least 48 hours before the date, port and estimated time of arrival.

National observer programme : pending the actual implementation by ICCAT of the Regional observer programme, each Member State shall ensure:

a) observer coverage for at least 100% (at least 20% according to the proposal) of its active purse seine catching vessels over 24 metres;

b) in the case of joint fishing operations, the presence of an observer on each catching vessel during the fishing operation.

T6-0128/2009

Debate in Parliament

PURPOSE: to transpose in Community law the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommendation establishing a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

CONTENT: at its Annual Meeting in 2008, the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) adopted a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. The ICCAT recovery plan pursues the same objectives as the recovery plan transposed in Regulation (EC) No 1559/2007.

In order to rebuild the stock, the new ICCAT recovery plan provides for a reduction of the total allowable catch (TAC) level until 2011, restrictions on fishing within certain areas and time periods, a new minimum size, measures concerning sport and recreational fishing activities, measures to address fishing and farming capacity as well as reinforced control measures and the ICCAT Scheme of Joint International Inspection to ensure the effectiveness of that plan.

The Community has been a Party to ICCAT since 1997 and the recommendations become binding on Contracting Parties which do not object to them. As a Contracting Party to this organisation, the Community has a responsibility to apply recommendations adopted to which it has raised no objections.

Therefore, this Regulation lays down the general rules for the application by the Community of a multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna (thunnus thynnus) recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). It shall apply to bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

The objective of that recovery plan shall be to achieve a biomass corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield with greater than 50% probability.

BUDGETARY IMPLICATION: the proposal has no implications for the Community budget.

COM(2009)0093
EUR-Lex