Considerations on COM(2017)216 - EU position in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO)

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dossier COM(2017)216 - EU position in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO).
document COM(2017)216 EN
date May  8, 2017
 
(1) Article 38 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in conjunction with Article 39(1)(d) thereof, provides that one of the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy is to assure the availability of supplies.

(2) Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 4 provides that the Common Fisheries Policy shall ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long-term and are managed in a way that is consistent with the objectives of achieving economic, social and employment benefits, and of contributing to the availability of food supplies. It also provides that the Common Fisheries Policy shall apply the precautionary approach to fisheries management, and shall aim to ensure that exploitation of living marine biological resources restores and maintains population of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield. It also provides that the Union shall aim to take management and conservation measures based on best available scientific advice, to promote fishing methods that contribute to more selective fishing and the avoidance and reduction, as far as possible, of unwanted catches, to fish with low impact on the marine ecosystem and fishery resources and to gradually eliminate discards. Besides, Article 28 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 specifically provides that these principles shall be applied by the Union in its external policy.

(3) By Council Decision 2012/130/EU 5 the Union concluded the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific Ocean (the SPRFMO Convention), which established the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO). Within the SPRFMO, the Commission of the SPRFMO (the SPRFMO Commission) is responsible for the adoption of measures designed to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of fishery resources through the application of the precautionary approach and an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, and, in so doing, to safeguard the marine ecosystems in which these resources occur. Such measures are to become binding upon the Union.

(4) On 5 October 2012, the Council adopted Decision 14405/12 on the establishment of the Union position to be adopted in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO).

(5) Decision 14405/12 provides that the position established therein is to be reviewed at the latest for the annual Meeting of the SPRFMO Commission in 2017. It is therefore appropriate to repeal Decision 14405/12 and to replace it by a new Decision.

(6) In view of the evolving nature of fishery resources in the Convention Area and the consequent need for the position of the Union to take account of new developments, including new statistical, biological and other information presented before or during the annual Meeting of the SPRFMO Commission, procedures must be established, in line with the principle of sincere cooperation among the Union institutions enshrined in Article 13(2) TEU, for the year-to-year specification of the Union position.

(7) The Commission, in accordance with Articles 218 and 3(1) TFEU, represents the EU in the annual Meeting of the SPRFMO Commission. Therefore, this Decision is addressed to the Commission.