At the biannual meeting between the Commission and the RACs on 1 March, the focus was on the changed work load for the RACs in connection with the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy – in particular in regards to a forthcoming discard ban and the multiannual plans.
As Council and European Parliament moves into trilogue on the basic regulation with their respective agendas set out, nothing in the new regulation is set in stone but it is possible to compare the positions and have a good guess at the potential outcomes. The Commission is doing exactly that, in preparation for 2014 when the new legislation is likely to be in place.
Therefore, the focus of the discussion with the Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) was on three main aspects: 1) the future structure and functioning of the RAC or Advisory Councils (ACs) as they will be called from next year; 2) the implementation of the discard ban, which likely will apply to some stocks and fisheries already in 2014; and 3) the work on long-term, multispecies management on a regional basis.
Future structure and role of ACs
The current regional Advisory Councils will be joined by at least another two: the Black Sea AC and the Aquaculture AC, but both the Council and the European Parliament have also proposed ACs for the “outermost regions”. If this proposal is endorsed by all parties, the Commission highlighted a number of practical issues that would need to be resolved, including logistics, stakeholder participation and costs. Decisions would also need to be made on whether the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands would remain a part of the South Western Waters RAC, or “join” a new AC, for example.
On the new ACs composition and functioning, it seems the set up will be similar to the current with a division of stakeholders into 2/3 and 1/3 groups, representing the sector and other interest groups respectively. Stakeholders from the 1/3 group have pointed out that the aquaculture sector cannot remain in the 1/3 group in the regional ACs simultaneously to having “its own” AC set up – this issue will need to be addressed.
Aside from the addition of new ACs, the more substantial change brought by the reform will affect the role and workload of the stakeholder bodies. The new emphasis is on providing early input on management to both the Commission and the relevant Member States. ACs will be expected to play a more active role in shaping future regional management plans, as well as the measures needed to implement the proposed discard ban.
Overall, the RACs response was a willingness to take on this increased responsibility, but it was also noted that more work will require more resources – and that is not supported by the proposed funding set out under the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. Funding looks set to stay on a level en par with the current funding but with a larger number of ACs to share them. There are also specific issues related to the lack of funding for regional collaborative work under the Fund, as it is mainly handled by Member States, which provide funding for national projects or investments.
Need to plan for upcoming discard ban
Some of the new work will need to start almost immediately, the Commission explained. It looks very likely now that there will be a [partial] discard ban in place by the end of the year, affecting some fisheries already in 2014. The details of this section are among the most debated in the whole reform process, so exactly what the future compromise will look like is uncertain, but nevertheless some baselines are reasonably clear. Considering the time frame, the Commission staff has therefore already started to prepare for a discard ban for pelagic stocks across the EU, as well as for the Baltic Sea stocks – all currently set to be implemented in 2014.
The Commission’s intention was to include measures for the discard ban in the long-term management plans (or multiannual plans – MAPs), but because of the political stand-off between the Council and the European Parliament on the content and decision-making power regarding certain aspects of the plans (Harvest Control Rules), this is not going to be possible. Therefore, special discard ban plans will need to be prepared for all affected fisheries. RACs will be consulted and required to provide input on these plans over the coming months, and there are a range of aspects that will need to be discussed, including definitions of fisheries, survival rates, slippage and how to apply the likely “de minimis” exemption.
DG MARE staff subsequently went through the planned work programme for each region, highlighting key issues. In the Baltic Sea region, a number of things will be underway: the proposed MAP for Baltic salmon, the upcoming multispecies plan, as well as the implementation of the discard ban.