The European Parliament adopted by 342 votes to 295, with 24 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a multi-annual plan for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea and the fisheries exploiting those stocks.

The European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amended the Commission's proposal as follows.

Objective of the plan : the objective of the multiannual plan shall be to contribute to achieving the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), and especially restoring and maintaining fish stocks above biomass levels capable of producing the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) , implementing the landing obligation, achieving a sustainable fisheries sector and providing an effective management framework.

The plan should include measures to phase out discards, to count fish under the minimum conservation reference size and to reduce and, if possible, eliminate the negative impacts of fishing activities on the marine environment, particularly threatened habitats and protected species including marine mammals, seabirds and reptiles. Members pointed out that this Regulation shall not be considered as a precedent for other multiannual plans in the Mediterranean Sea unless otherwise provided.

Scope : the provisions of the multi-annual plan shall only apply to stocks of sardine and anchovy. While the European Commission is proposing to separate the management of sardine and anchovy, Members are in favour of subjecting these two species to joint management since they are caught together. Measures under the plan would be taken on the basis of the best available scientific advice.

Reference levels of the plan : one of the main provisions of the proposal is based on biological reference points. In the Commission's proposal, these reference points are based on the fishing mortality value (F), which corresponds to exploitation of resources at maximum sustainable yield (FMSY).

Parliament proposed that the reference point to be used in the multiannual plan for the Adriatic Sea shall be stock biomass and not fishing mortality . It believed that using only biomass is more appropriate and a more certain value for managing small pelagic species which are more dependent on environmental conditions than exploitation, at least until improvement of scientific assessment.

Management measures : while the Commission proposes to regulate fishing by laying down total catch volumes and establishing a quota system, Members proposed to replace, the ‘fishing opportunities’ (referring to the TAC system) by ‘management measures’, a concept better suited to the effort based management system.

When scientific advice indicates that recreational fisheries have a significant impact on the fishing mortality of a particular stock, the Council shall take them into account and may limit recreational fisheries when setting fishing opportunities in order to avoid exceeding the total target of fishing mortality.

Three years after the implementation of the management measures, a scientific study should be carried out to verify the effectiveness of the measures taken.

Socio-economic objectives : the amended text emphasised that the Adriatic Sea small pelagic fishery has a very important socio-economic impact for the Member States’ coastal community’s livelihood and future of coastal communities in Member States. Regionalisation should be used to adopt measures that take into account the specificities of each fishing area and preserve its environmental conditions.

Artisanal fishing gear traditionally used in fishing communities should be safeguarded when defining the technical measures resulting from the multiannual plan. In order to enable the industry to cope with the fishing effort reduction measures and the consequent reduction in income for businesses and for seafarers, there should be arrangements for priority access to appropriate support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

Specific conservation measures: the plan should also provide for certain accompanying technical, as well as temporal and spatial measures to be adopted, by means of delegated acts, and taking into account the best available scientific advice.

Parliament also proposed:

in 2019, the catch limit for small pelagics shall be set at the 2014 catch level and from 2020 onwards, the catch limits for small pelagics shall be gradually reduced each year for the Member State concerned by 4% compared to the previous year, until 2022; that the fishing effort of fishing vessels targeting small pelagics shall not exceed 180 fishing days per year and 20 fishing days per month, with an annual maximum of 144 fishing days targeting sardine and an annual maximum of 144 fishing days targeting anchovy; the implementation of spatio-temporal closures each year to protect spawning and nursery areas for (i) sardines from 1 October to 31 March and (ii) anchovy from 1 April to 30 September; the application of additional closures for vessels of an overall length of over 12 metres, separately for each type of fishing gear, shall be implemented for not less than six months.

Member States should provide incentives to fishing vessels deploying selective fishing gear or using fishing techniques with reduced environmental impact.

The Committee on Fisheries adopted the report by Ruža TOMAŠIĆ (ECR, HR) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a multi-annual plan for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea and the fisheries exploiting those stocks.

The committee recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission's proposal as follows.

Objective of the plan : the objective of the multiannual plan should be to contribute to achieving the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), and especially restoring and maintaining fish stocks above biomass levels capable of producing the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), implementing the landing obligation, achieving a sustainable fisheries sector and providing an effective management framework.

The plan should provide for additional management measures, in particular measures to gradually eliminate discards, to count fish below the minimum conservation reference size and to minimise, and where possible eliminate, the negative impacts of fishing activities on the marine environment.

Scope : the provisions of the multi-annual plan should apply only to stocks of sardine and anchovy . While the European Commission is proposing to separate the management of sardine and anchovy, Members are in favour of subjecting these two species to joint management since they are caught together. Measures under the plan would be taken on the basis of the best available scientific advice .

Reference levels of the plan : one of the main provisions of the proposal is based on biological reference points. In the Commission's proposal, these reference points are based on the fishing mortality value (F), which corresponds to exploitation of resources at maximum sustainable yield (FMSY). Members proposed that the reference point to be used in the multiannual plan for the Adriatic Sea should be stock biomass and not fishing mortality . They believe that using only biomass is more appropriate and a more certain value for managing small pelagic species which are more dependent on environmental conditions than exploitation, at least until improvement of scientific assessment.

Management measures : while the Commission proposes to regulate fishing by laying down total catch volumes and establishing a quota system, Members proposed to replace, the ‘fishing opportunities’ (referring to the TAC system) by ‘management measures’, a concept better suited to the effort based management system.

When scientific advice indicates that recreational fisheries have a significant impact on the fishing mortality of a particular stock, the Council shall take them into account and may limit recreational fisheries when setting fishing opportunities in order to avoid exceeding the total target of fishing mortality.

Three years after the implementation of the management measures, a scientific study should be carried out to verify the effectiveness of the measures taken.

Socio-economic objectives : the amended text emphasises that the Adriatic Sea small pelagic fishery has a very important socio-economic impact for the Member States’ coastal community’s livelihood and future of coastal communities in Member States. Regionalisation should be used to adopt measures that take into account the specificities of each fishing area and preserve its environmental conditions.

Artisanal fishing gear traditionally used in fishing communities should be safeguarded when defining the technical measures resulting from the multiannual plan. In order to enable the industry to cope with the fishing effort reduction measures and the consequent reduction in income for businesses and for seafarers, there should be arrangements for priority access to appropriate support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

The plan should also provide for certain accompanying technical, as well as temporal and spatial measures to be adopted, by means of delegated acts, and taking into account the best available scientific advice. Moreover, Member States should provide incentives to fishing vessels deploying selective fishing gear or using fishing techniques with reduced environmental impact. A multiannual plan should always find a balance between the achievable result, taking into consideration the timeframe, and the socio-economic impact.

PURPOSE: to establish a multi-annual plan for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea and the fisheries exploiting those stocks.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: the common fisheries policy (CFP) seeks to ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term, to apply the precautionary approach to fisheries management, and to implement the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management.

Scientific advice from the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) and from the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean’s Scientific Advisory Committee (GFCM — SAC) has indicated that the exploitation of anchovy and sardine stocks in the Adriatic Sea exceeds the levels required to achieve the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) . The vast majority are being caught by Italy and Croatia, in the northern part of the Adriatic.

Currently, small pelagic fisheries in the Adriatic Sea are governed by several legal frameworks, at national, EU and international level. This proposal addresses the problem of overexploitation of small pelagic stocks due to an unsustainable fishery and ineffective governance.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the preferred option was the one which called for an EU Regulation to manage small pelagic fisheries. This option should lead to an improved conservation status of anchovy and sardine, which would ultimately result in a healthier and more sustainable fishing sector dependent on this resource, with better salaries for individual fishers and greater profitability overall compared to the status quo.

CONTENT: the proposed plan seeks to replenish stocks such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel and horse mackerel and contribute to their sustainable use, as well as to establish a simpler and more comprehensive management framework. The plan should:

facilitate the introduction of the landing obligation by providing a basis for derogations in certain circumscribed situations; enable regionalisation to be used , whereby Member States around sea basins are involved in the conception and design of management rules for the interested parties.

The multiannual-plan will apply to all EU fishing vessels irrespective of their overall participation in fishing in the Adriatic Sea (in EU and international waters). It shall include:

target fishing mortalities expressed in ranges for each of the stocks, where available, which would be the basis for setting annual catch limits for those stocks; safeguard measures to give a framework to restore stocks when they fall below safe biological limits; control provisions are provided on the vessel monitoring system, prior notification, electronic logbooks and designated ports. Regarding electronic logbooks and the vessel monitoring system, the provisions included in Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 are extended to cover all vessels over eight metres in length, to improve control of the fisheries covered by the multiannual plan.

The plan should be evaluated every five years on the basis of scientific advice.