Decision 2004/585 - 2004/585/EC: Council Decision of 19 July 2004 establishing Regional Advisory Councils under the Common Fisheries Policy - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 256/17

Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy (3) and in particular Articles 31 and 32 thereof, provides for new forms of participation by stakeholders in the Common Fisheries Policy through the establishment of Regional Advisory Councils.

A consistent approach to the establishment of Regional Advisory Councils requires that they correspond to management units based on biological criteria and that they are limited in number in order to offer meaningful advice and for practical reasons.

Since Regional Advisory Councils are stakeholder-led organisations, they should adapt their structure to the specific characteristics of the fisheries and regions concerned. Nevertheless, a general framework is necessary for the establishment of the Regional Advisory Councils.

In the interests of efficiency, it is necessary to limit the size of Regional Advisory Councils whilst ensuring that they include all the interests affected by the Common Fisheries Policy and while recognising the primacy of fishing interests given the effects on them of management decisions and policies.

In order to ensure consistency on issues of common interest to more than one Regional Advisory Council, it is essential to establish links between the different Regional Advisory Councils.

In view of the tasks of the Advisory Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture renewed by Commission Decision 1999/478/EC (4), which is composed of representatives of a wide range of European organisations and interests, the work of the Regional Advisory Councils should be coordinated with that of the said Committee, to which they should also send their reports.

In order to ensure the effective establishment of the Regional Advisory Councils, it is essential that public funds contribute to their costs in the start-up phase and to interpretation and translation costs.

A financial reference amount, within the meaning of point 34 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure (5), is included in this Decision for the entire duration of the financing provisions, without thereby affecting the powers of the budgetary authority as they are defined by the Treaty,

‘Member State concerned’ shall mean a Member State having a fishing interest in the area or fisheries covered by a Regional Advisory Council;

‘Fisheries sector’ shall mean the catching sub-sector, including shipowners, small-scale fishermen, employed fishermen, producer organisations as well as, amongst others, processors, traders and other market organisations and women's networks;

‘Other interest groups’ shall mean, amongst others, environmental organisations and groups, aquaculture producers, consumers and recreational or sport fishermen.