Maritime and fisheries policy

← Maritime and fisheries policy

Common market organisation in fishery and aquaculture

Overall state of play:

• Proposal adopted on 13 July 2011, COM(2011)416
• Legal act adopted on 11 December 2013, Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013
• Date of effect: 1 January 2014
• Commission report on the results of the application of the regulation: planned to be adopted in 2023
• Evaluation on marketing standards framework for fishery and aquaculture products finalised, SWD(2019)453

State of play, main conclusions, outlook

As part of the Reform package of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), this regulation reduced 27 legal acts (four Council Regulations and 23 Commission implementing Regulations) to 3 legal Acts (1 co-decided Regulation and 2 implementing acts).

The yearly Regulations fixing the parameters for the operation of the intervention mechanisms (i.e. one Council Regulation and 6 Commission implementing Regulations) have been abolished. The 6 intervention mechanisms have been reduced to a single storage one for a limited period of time, which has strongly reduced the notification and reporting obligations for both Member States and producer organisations.

The common market organisation (CMO) instruments are financed by single funds, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for the period 2014-2020, and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) for the period 2021-2027, instead of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) financing the former intervention mechanisms and, partially, by the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) as was earlier.

The CMO Regulation was amended three times¹, most recently in 2020 in order to integrate crisis measures to respond to the market disruptions that resulted from the Covid-19 crisis; these measures served the same purposes after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine broke out.

¹ Council Regulation (EU) No 1385/2013 of 17 December 2013;
Regulation (EU) 2015/812 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015;
Regulation (EU) 2020/560 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2020.

State of Play:

Adopted by the Commission on 13 July 2011, COM(2011)416

Which objective(s) did the Commission pursue?

The proposal aimed to strengthen the competitiveness of the EU industry, improve the transparency of the markets, and ensure a level playing field for all products marketed in the Union. A number of changes were proposed to bring simplifications: the number of acts was to be reduced, the yearly fixing of parameters for the operation of the intervention mechanisms would be removed, thereby reducing notification and reporting obligations for both Member States and producer organisations.

State of Play:

Adopted on 11 December 2013, Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013

Outcome of Legislative Procedure

The Regulation contributes to a major simplification of the acquis by integrating 27 legal acts (four Council Regulations and 23 Commission implementing Regulations) into 3 legal Acts (1 co-decided Regulation and 2 implementing acts).

In addition, the yearly Regulations fixing the parameters for the operation of the intervention mechanisms (i.e. one Council Regulation and 6 Commission implementing Regulations) have been repealed and the 6 intervention mechanisms are reduced to a single storage one, which ends on 31 December 2018. This increases transparency and despite the new information obligation on fishing gears introduced by the co-legislator, the new Regulation strongly reduces the notification and reporting obligations for both Member States and producer organisations as proposed by the Commission. Therefore, the major burden reductions sought by the Commission were achieved, with only a relatively small addition of an information obligation introduced by Parliament.

State of Play:

Implementation reported by the Commission

The Commission shall report to the European Parliament and the Council on the results of the application of this Regulation by 31 December 2022. A targeted stakeholder consultation was carried out from 17 December 2021 to 14 March 2022; the consultation process was closed with the organisation of a stakeholder event on 10 June 2022.

• Feasibility report on options for an eco-label scheme for fishery and aquaculture products - COM(2016) 263 final (Art. 28 of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013)

• Interim assessment of the implementation of Production and Marketing Plans (PMPs) pursuant to the CMO Regulation (Art. 28 of Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013) and the EMFF Regulation (Art.66 of Regulation (EU) No 508/2014)

• Evaluation on Marketing standards framework for fishery and aquaculture products, SWD(2019)453