Annexes to COM(2008)333 - Recommendation from the Commission to the Council in order to authorise the Commission to conduct negotiations for the elaboration of an international legally-binding instrument on port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

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dossier COM(2008)333 - Recommendation from the Commission to the Council in order to authorise the Commission to conduct negotiations for the ...
document COM(2008)333 EN
date May 28, 2008
Agreement the ECJ has held that this arrangement Council/Commission also applies when FAO organs are conducting negotiations for an FAO convention.

II. RECOMMENDATION

In the light of the above, the Commission recommends:

- that the Council authorise the Commission to negotiate with other interested parties with a view to the elaboration of an international legally-binding instrument on port State measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing;

- that, since in accordance with the Treaty, the commission will conduct these negotiations on behalf of the European Community, the Council appoint a special committee to assist it in this task ; and

- that the Council issue the appended negotiating directives.

ANNEX

Negotiating Directives

The Commission shall conduct negotiations on behalf of the Community with a view to the elaboration of an international legally binding instrument on Port State measures which shall be geared towards preventing, deterring and eliminating IUU fishing.

The Commission shall make sure that the text of the agreement is consistent with international law, and in particular with the provisions of the UN Convention on Law of the Sea, the UN Agreement relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks and the Agreement to promote compliance with international conservation and management measures by fishing vessels on the high seas.

The Commission shall also act in accordance with the objectives pursued by the Community within the framework of the Common Fisheries Policy and, insofar as the agreement affects developing countries, take into account the orientations defined in the context of the "Policy coherence for development" process.

The Commission shall support the establishment of an instrument which binds its Parties to enact measures:

- to deter vessels engaged in or supporting IUU fishing activities from using their ports;

- to inspect vessels present in their ports and presumed to have engaged in or supported such activities;

- to ensure a proper follow up of inspections and adopt appropriate measures, in accordance with international law, towards vessels for which it can be established that they were engaged in or have supported IUU fishing activities.

The Commission shall promote the insertion of the agreement into an integrated approach designed to deter, prevent and eliminate IUU fishing, based notably on international cooperation and monitoring and control measures applying to the whole chain of fishing and related activities ("from the net to the plate").

The Commission shall make sure that the agreement is effectively designed to target IUU fishing activities without discriminating against vessels which operate in compliance with applicable laws, regulations or conservation and management measures.

The Commission shall support the position that the provisions of the agreement shall be constitutive of minimum standards which do not prevent its Parties from enacting, as Port States and in accordance with international law, more stringent measures against IUU fishing.

The Commission shall ensure that the agreement contains appropriate provisions enabling the Community to become a Party thereto.

The Commission shall report to the Council on the outcome of the negotiations and, where appropriate, on any problem that may arise during the negotiations.

[1] Cf. para 68 of the Report of the twenty-seventh session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (Rome, 5-9 March 2007) "Acknowledging the urgent need for a comprehensive suite of port State Measures, the Committee took note of the strong support for the Norwegian proposal to develop a new legally binding instrument based on the Model Scheme on Port State Measures to Combat IUU Fishing and the IPOA-IUU. The Committee endorsed the following timetable: an Expert Consultation to be convened during the latter half of 2007 to prepare a draft agreement and a Technical Consultation to finalize the instrument's text during the first half of 2007 to prepare a draft agreement and a Technical Consultation to finalize the instrument's text during the first half of 2008 and present it to the twenty-eighth COFI Session in 2009. Many Members stressed that the new instrument would represent minimum standards for port States, with flexibility to adopt more stringent measures and some Members also stressed that it should not detract from other previously agreed measures such as the need for capacity reduction."