Maritime and fisheries policy

← Maritime and fisheries policy

Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (2013)

Overall state of Play

• Proposal - Adopted on 13 July 2011, COM(2011)425
• Legal act - Adopted on 11 December 2013, Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013
• Date of effect: 1 January 2014
• Report on the functioning of the policy (as established in Article 49 of Regulation 1380/2013): planned to be adopted in 2023

Summary:

A major reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was initiated in 2011 continuing efforts to simplify and reduce unnecessary burdens.

The proposed simplification objectives were generally supported by the European Parliament and the Council and achieved with no significant variations from the Commission proposal.

Major benefits are 1) the simplification of the implementation procedures of the CFP; 2) switch-over from a common to a regional approach of fisheries management (regionalisation) that aims to reduce regulatory burden and increase flexibility, acceptance and ownership by operators and thus better compliance; 3) the integration in the CFP Regulation of the measures on conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources, the measures on the management of fishing fleets registered in the Community outermost regions and the measures concerning the Regional Advisory Councils.

State of Play:

Adopted by the Commission on 13 July 2011, COM(2011)425

Which objective(s) did the Commission pursue?

The general objective that the proposal pursued was to ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities provide long-term sustainable environmental, economic and social conditions and contribute to the availability of food supplies.

The proposal also aimed at simplifying the implementation procedures of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) covering from conservation of marine biological resources through market organisation to aquaculture.

Another objective was to introduce a regional approach to management. Decentralisation and empowerment of stakeholders were expected to increase compliance: the Regulation sets the general principles, overall targets and timeframes, whereas Member States decide, in cooperation with the local industry, the measures to achieve targets on deadline. This approach reduces regulatory burden and increases flexibility, acceptance and ownership by operators and thus better compliance.

The proposal also aimed at simplifying the relevant EU legislation by integrating in the CFP Regulation the measures on conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources, the measures on the management of fishing fleets registered in the Community outermost regions; the measures concerning the Regional Advisory Councils; and the Data collection framework (the integration of the latter was not retained in the adopted text).

State of Play:

Adopted on 11 December 2013, Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013

Outcome of Legislative Procedure

The proposed simplification objectives were retained with no significant variations from the Commission proposal.

State of Play:

• Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 - application with effect from 1 January 2014
• Requirement for annual communication on the state of play of the CFP
• Evaluation of the Entry/Exit scheme "in the light of the evolving relationship between fleet capacity and prospected fishing opportunities": SWD(2019) 311 – 25 July 2019.
• Report on the functioning of the Common Fisheries Policy (as established in Article 49 of Regulation 1380/2013): to be adopted in 2023.

Implementation reported by the Commission

Annual reports on the balance between the fishing capacity of Member States' fleets and their fishing opportunities (Article 22) are issued every year since 2015 (COM(2015) 563, COM/2016/0380, COM(2017) 368)

The Commission also annually reports on progress in achieving the maximum sustainable yield and the situation of fish stocks, as required by Article 50 (COM(2014) 388, COM(2015) 239, COM(2016) 396, COM(2017) 368, COM(2018) 452, COM(2019) 274, COM(2020) 248, COM(2021)279, COM(2022)253). Since 2017 the abovementioned annual report on the balance between the fishing capacity of Member States' fleets and their fishing opportunities (Article 22) is included in this report.

Yearly reports are also issued on the execution of Member States’ national data collection programmes in accordance with Article 25 (https://stecf.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports/dcf-dcr).

In 2018, the Commission reported under Article 46 in respect of the delegation of power given to the Commission under the CFP (COM(2018)079).