the conservation of marine biological resources and the management of fisheries and fleets exploiting such resources;

in relation to measures on markets and financial measures in support of the implementation of the CFP: fresh water biological resources, aquaculture, and the processing and marketing of fisheries and aquaculture products.

on the territory of Member States to which the Treaty applies;

in Union waters, including by fishing vessels flying the flag of, and registered in, third countries;

by Union fishing vessels outside Union waters; or

by nationals of Member States, without prejudice to the primary responsibility of the flag State.

gradually eliminate discards, on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the best available scientific advice, by avoiding and reducing, as far as possible, unwanted catches, and by gradually ensuring that catches are landed;

where necessary, make the best use of unwanted catches, without creating a market for such of those catches that are below the minimum conservation reference size;

provide conditions for economically viable and competitive fishing capture and processing industry and land-based fishing related activity;

provide for measures to adjust the fishing capacity of the fleets to levels of fishing opportunities consistent with paragraph 2, with a view to having economically viable fleets without overexploiting marine biological resources;

promote the development of sustainable Union aquaculture activities to contribute to food supplies and security and employment;

contribute to a fair standard of living for those who depend on fishing activities, bearing in mind coastal fisheries and socio-economic aspects;

contribute to an efficient and transparent internal market for fisheries and aquaculture products and contribute to ensuring a level–playing field for fisheries and aquaculture products marketed in the Union;

take into account the interests of both consumers and producers;

promote coastal fishing activities, taking into account socio-economic aspects;

be coherent with the Union environmental legislation, in particular with the objective of achieving a good environmental status by 2020 as set out in Article 1(1) of Directive 2008/56/EC, as well as with other Union policies.

'Union waters' means the waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the Member States, with the exception of the waters adjacent to the territories listed in Annex II to the Treaty;

'marine biological resources' means available and accessible living marine aquatic species, including anadromous and catadromous species during their marine life;

'fresh water biological resources' means available and accessible living fresh water aquatic species;

'fishing vessel' means any vessel equipped for commercial exploitation of marine biological resources or a blue fin tuna trap;

'Union fishing vessel' means a fishing vessel flying the flag of a Member State and registered in the Union;

'entry to the fishing fleet' means registration of a fishing vessel in the fishing vessel register of a Member State;

'maximum sustainable yield' means the highest theoretical equilibrium yield that can be continuously taken on average from a stock under existing average environmental conditions without significantly affecting the reproduction process;

'precautionary approach to fisheries management', as referred to in Article 6 of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement, means an approach according to which the absence of adequate scientific information should not justify postponing or failing to take management measures to conserve target species, associated or dependent species and non-target species and their environment;

'ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management' means an integrated approach to managing fisheries within ecologically meaningful boundaries which seeks to manage the use of natural resources, taking account of fishing and other human activities, while preserving both the biological wealth and the biological processes necessary to safeguard the composition, structure and functioning of the habitats of the ecosystem affected, by taking into account the knowledge and uncertainties regarding biotic, abiotic and human components of ecosystems;

'discards' means catches that are returned to the sea;

'low impact fishing' means utilising selective fishing techniques which have a low detrimental impact on marine ecosystems or which may result in low fuel emissions, or both;

'selective fishing' means fishing with fishing methods or fishing gears that target and capture organisms by size or species during the fishing operation, allowing non-target specimens to be avoided or released unharmed;

'fishing mortality rate' means the rate at which biomass or individuals are removed from a stock by means of fishery activities over a given period;

'stock' means a marine biological resource that occurs in a given management area;

'catch limit' means, as appropriate, either a quantitative limit on catches of a fish stock or group of fish stocks over a given period where such fish stocks or group of fish stocks are subject to an obligation to land, or a quantitative limit on landings of a fish stock or group of fish stocks over a given period for which the obligation to land does not apply;

'conservation reference point' means values of fish stock population parameters (such as biomass or fishing mortality rate) used in fisheries management, for example in respect of an acceptable level of biological risk or a desired level of yield;

'minimum conservation reference size' means the size of a living marine aquatic species taking into account maturity, as established by Union law, below which restrictions or incentives apply that aim to avoid capture through fishing activity; such size replaces, where relevant, the minimum landing size;

'stock within safe biological limits' means a stock with a high probability that its estimated spawning biomass at the end of the previous year is higher than the limit biomass reference point (Blim) and its estimated fishing mortality rate for the previous year is less than the limit fishing mortality rate reference point (Flim);

'safeguard' means a precautionary measure designed to avoid something undesirable occurring;

'technical measure' means a measure that regulates the composition of catches by species and size and the impacts on components of the ecosystems resulting from fishing activities by establishing conditions for the use and structure of fishing gear and restrictions on access to fishing areas;

'fishing effort' means the product of the capacity and the activity of a fishing vessel; for a group of fishing vessels it is the sum of the fishing effort of all vessels in the group;

'Member State having a direct management interest' means a Member State which has an interest consisting of either fishing opportunities or a fishery taking place in the exclusive economic zone of the Member State concerned, or, in the Mediterranean Sea, a traditional fishery on the high seas;

'transferable fishing concession' means a revocable user entitlement to a specific part of fishing opportunities allocated to a Member State or established in a management plan adopted by a Member State in accordance with Article 19 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1967/2006 ( 1 ), which the holder may transfer;

'fishing capacity' means a vessel's tonnage in GT (Gross Tonnage) and its power in kW (Kilowatt) as defined in Articles 4 and 5 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2930/86 ( 2 );

'aquaculture' means the rearing or cultivation of aquatic organisms using techniques designed to increase the production of the organisms in question beyond the natural capacity of the environment, where the organisms remain the property of a natural or legal person throughout the rearing and culture stage, up to and including harvesting;

'fishing licence' means a licence as defined in point (9) of Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 ( 3 );

'fishing authorisation' means an authorisation as defined in point (10) of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009;

'fishing activity' means searching for fish, shooting, setting, towing, hauling of a fishing gear, taking catch on board, transhipping, retaining on board, processing on board, transferring, caging, fattening and landing of fish and fishery products;

'fishery products' means aquatic organisms resulting from any fishing activity or products derived therefrom;

'operator' means the natural or legal person who operates or holds any undertaking carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of production, processing, marketing, distribution and retail chains of fisheries and aquaculture products;

'serious infringement' means an infringement that is defined as such in relevant Union law, including in Article 42(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 ( 4 ) and in Article 90(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009;

'end-user of scientific data' means a body with a research or management interest in the scientific analysis of data in the fisheries sector;

'surplus of allowable catch' means that part of the allowable catch which a coastal State does not harvest, resulting in an overall exploitation rate for individual stocks that remains below levels at which stocks are capable of restoring themselves and maintaining populations of harvested species above desired levels based on the best available scientific advice;

'aquaculture products' means aquatic organisms at any stage of their life cycle resulting from any aquaculture activity or products derived therefrom;

'spawning stock biomass' means an estimate of the mass of the fish of a particular stock that reproduces at a defined time, including both males and females and fish that reproduce viviparously;

'mixed fisheries' means fisheries in which more than one species is present and where different species are likely to be caught in the same fishing operation;

'sustainable fisheries partnership agreement' means an international agreement concluded with a third state for the purpose of obtaining access to waters and resources in order to sustainably exploit a share of the surplus of marine biological resources, in exchange for financial compensation from the Union, which may include sectoral support.

'North Sea' means ICES zones ( 5 ) IIIa and IV;

'Baltic Sea' means ICES zones IIIb, IIIc and IIId;

'North Western waters' means ICES zones V (excluding Va and only Union waters of Vb), VI and VII;

'South Western waters' means ICES zones VIII, IX and X (waters around Azores), and CECAF zones ( 6 ) 34.1.1, 34.1.2 and 34.2.0 (waters around Madeira and the Canary Islands);

'Mediterranean Sea' means Maritime Waters of the Mediterranean to the East of line 5°36′ West;

'Black Sea' means the GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean) geographical sub-area as defined in Resolution GFCM/33/2009/2.

the state of exploited marine biological resources;

the level of fishing and the impact that fishing activities have on the marine biological resources and on the marine ecosystems; and

the socio-economic performance of the fisheries, aquaculture and processing sectors within and outside Union waters.

accuracy and reliability, and collection in a timely manner;

the use of coordination mechanisms with a view to avoiding duplication of data collection for different purposes;

safe storage and protection of collected data in computerised databases, and their public availability where appropriate, including at aggregated level, whilst ensuring confidentiality;

access by the Commission, or by bodies designated by it, to the national databases and systems used for processing the collected data for the purpose of verification of the existence and quality of the data;

the availability in a timely manner of the relevant data and the respective methodologies by which they are obtained, for bodies with a research or management interest in the scientific analysis of data in the fisheries sector and for any interested parties, save in circumstances where protection and confidentiality are required under applicable Union law.

actively support and contribute to the development of scientific knowledge and advice;

improve policy coherence of Union initiatives, with particular regard to environmental, trade and development activities and strengthen consistency of actions taken in the context of development cooperation and scientific, technical and economic cooperation;

contribute to sustainable fishing activities that are economically viable and promote employment within the Union;

ensure that Union fishing activities outside Union waters are based on the same principles and standards as those applicable under Union law in the area of the CFP, while promoting a level–playing field for Union operators vis-à-vis third-country operators;

promote and support, in all international spheres, action necessary to eradicate IUU-fishing;

promote the establishment and the strengthening of compliance committees of RFMOs, periodical independent performance reviews and appropriate remedial actions, including effective and dissuasive penalties, which are to be applied in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.

improving the competitiveness of the aquaculture industry and supporting its development and innovation;

reducing the administrative burden and making the implementation of Union law more efficient and responsive to the needs of stakeholders;

encouraging economic activity;

diversification and improvement of the quality of life in coastal and inland areas;

integrating aquaculture activities into maritime, coastal and inland spatial planning.

administrative simplification, in particular regarding evaluations and impact studies and licenses;

reasonable certainty for aquaculture operators in relation to access to waters and space;

indicators for environmental, economic and social sustainability;

assessment of other possible cross-border effects, especially on marine biological resources and marine ecosystems in neighbouring Member States;

the creation of synergies between national research programmes and collaboration between the industry and the scientific community;

the promotion of the competitive advantage of sustainable, high quality food;

the promotion of aquaculture practices and research with a view to enhancing positive effects on the environment and on the fish resources, and to reducing negative impacts, including reducing pressure on fish stocks used for feed production, and increasing resource efficiency.

contribute to the achievement of the objectives set out in Article 2, and in particular to the sustainable exploitation of living marine biological resources;

enable the fishery and aquaculture industry to apply the CFP at the appropriate level;

strengthen the competitiveness of the Union fishery and aquaculture industry, in particular producers;

improve the transparency and stability of the markets, in particular as regards economic knowledge and understanding of the Union markets for fishery and aquaculture products along the supply chain, ensure that the distribution of added value along the sector's supply chain is more balanced, improve consumer information and raise awareness, by means of notification and labelling that provides comprehensible information;

contribute to ensuring a level–playing field for all products marketed in the Union by promoting sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources;

contribute to ensuring that consumers have a diverse supply of fishery and aquaculture products;

provide the consumer with verifiable and accurate information regarding the origin of the product and its mode of production, in particular through marking and labelling.

the organisation of the industry including market stabilization measures;

the production and marketing plans of fishery and aquaculture producer organisations;

common marketing standards;

consumer information.

a global, integrated and common approach;

cooperation and coordination between Member States, the Commission and the Agency;

cost-efficiency and proportionality;

the use of efficient control technologies for the availability and quality of data on fisheries;

a Union framework for control, inspection and enforcement;

a risk-based strategy focused on systematic and automated cross-checks of all available relevant data;

the development of a culture of compliance and co-operation among all operators and fishermen.

regularly review issues of compliance and implementation under Union fisheries control system and identify possible difficulties of common interest in implementation of the CFP rules;

formulate advice in relation to the implementation of the CFP rules, including prioritisation of Union financial assistance; and

exchange information on control and inspection activities, including the fight against IUU fishing.

an Advisory Council for the outermost regions, divided into three sections for each of the following sea basins: West Atlantic, East Atlantic and Indian Ocean;

an Advisory Council for aquaculture;

an Advisory Council for markets;

an Advisory Council for the Black Sea.

submit recommendations and suggestions on matters relating to the management of fisheries and the socio-economic and conservation aspects of fisheries and aquaculture to the Commission and to the Member State concerned, and, in particular, recommendations on how to simplify rules on fisheries management;

inform the Commission and Member States of problems relating to the management and the socio-economic and conservation aspects of fisheries and, where appropriate, of aquaculture in their geographical area or field of competence and propose solutions to overcome those problems;

contribute, in close cooperation with scientists, to the collection, supply and analysis of data necessary for the development of conservation measures.

organisations representing the fisheries and, where appropriate, aquaculture operators, and representatives of the processing and marketing sectors;

other interest groups affected by the CFP (e.g. environmental organisations and consumer groups).