PURPOSE: to establish, for 2022, fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion.

BACKGROUND: the multi-annual plan for fisheries exploiting demersal stocks in the Western Mediterranean Sea was established by Regulation (EU) 2019/1022 of the European Parliament and of the Council and entered into force on 16 July 2019. The plan aims to ensure that exploitation of living marine biological resources restores and maintains populations of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY).

Following the adoption and entry into force of the multi-annual plan for demersal stocks in the Western Mediterranean, fishing opportunities for certain stocks and groups of stocks in the Mediterranean and Black Seas should be fixed with a view to gradually and incrementally achieving a fishing mortality at a level corresponding to maximum sustainable yield by 2020 if possible, and at the latest by 1 January 2025.

CONTENT: The proposal fixes the fishing opportunities for 2022 for certain stocks or groups of stocks in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and in particular

1) the fishing effort regime for trawlers exploiting demersal stocks in the Western Mediterranean;

2) the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) measures for 2018 and 2019 applicable in the Mediterranean. The European Union is a member of the GFCM, as are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. The measures adopted within the framework of the GFCM are binding on its members;

3) GFCM measures applicable in the Black Sea, including: (i) the setting of an autonomous quota for sprat in the Black Sea in order not to increase the current level of fishing mortality; (ii) the transposition of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and the allocation of quotas for turbot, as established by GFCM.