28.1.2012   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 24/116

1.1

The EESC endorses the European Commission's proposals and acknowledges the efforts that both the Member States and fishermen are making to comply with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)'s tough bluefin tuna recovery plan. The plan is now yielding results, but its implementation is having serious socio-economic effects, which should be taken into account.

1.2

To ensure that recovery can be observed and the best management measures can be adopted in the future, the Committee calls on the Member States and the Commission to continue supporting applied scientific research.

2.1

The proposal put forward by the Commission is an amendment to Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 concerning a multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

2.2

Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 was adopted on 6 April 2009 as a consequence of ICCAT Recommendation 08-05, drawn up at ICCAT's 16th special meeting held in November 2008. The regulation repealed Council Regulation (EC) No 1559/2007 of 17 December 2007, which had established an initial multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

2.3

At its annual meeting in 2010, ICCAT made a recommendation modifying the existing multiannual recovery plan, with a view to rebuilding bluefin tuna stocks in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

2.4

The 2010 Recommendation again reduces the TAC (Total Allowable Catch) and strengthens measures to reduce fishing capacity and reinforce control measures, especially as regards transfers and caging operations.

2.5

The purpose of these measures is to ensure that the plan is effective and to achieve a biomass corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield (BMSY) with greater than 60 % probability by 2022.

2.6

ICCAT's recommendations are binding on those Contracting Parties (CPs) that do not object to them. As a Contracting Party to ICCAT since 1997, the European Union has a responsibility to apply this recommendation, to which it has raised no objections.

2.7

The purpose of this proposal for a regulation is consequently to transpose into EU law the ICCAT recommendation referred to above.

3.1

The first change is to the aim of the recovery plan, which is to reach the maximum sustainable yield with greater than 60 % probability rather than 50 %.

3.2

A number of changes are made to definitions; in particular, the definitions of ‘auxiliary vessel’ and ‘transfer operations’ are extended, the definition of ‘farming’ is amended, and the definition of ‘responsible Member State’ is added.

3.3

Chapter II on fishing opportunities introduces the obligation for Member States to transmit to the Commission, by no later than 15 September each year, their provisional annual fishing plan for the following year.

3.4

With regard to capacity measures, the subject of Chapter III, the proposal for a regulation sets a timetable for each Member State to adjust its capacity between 2010 and 2013 to ensure that by the last year, each Member State has eliminated 100 % of the discrepancy between its fishing capacity and its fishing capacity commensurate with its quota, for both fishing vessels and tuna traps.

3.5

In Chapter IV on technical measures, the ban on purse seine fishing for bluefin tuna is extended by one month, to run from 15 June to 15 May of the following year.

3.6

Chapter V contains changes to control measures, in particular:

4.1

The EESC welcomes and endorses all of the amended technical and control measures and the new ones introduced. It views these measures as the result of experience gained and as contributions to rebuilding bluefin tuna stocks in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, in order to achieve a biomass corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield (BMSY) with greater than 60 % probability by 2022.

4.2

The Committee therefore urges the Commission to apply this regulation with the utmost rigour to all Member States and CPCs carrying out bluefish tuna-fishing or farming and fattening activities in the area covered by the ICCAT Agreement.

4.3

The EESC acknowledges the work that has been done in recent years by the European Commission, the Member States and fishermen to adjust fleets to available fishing opportunities and to comply with the tough recovery plan, with all its concomitant social and economic effects, which should be taken into account.

4.4

The Committee is pleased to note that the sacrifices that have been made are yielding results and that both scientific experts and the fishermen affected are now seeing bluefin tuna stocks recover.

4.5

The EESC calls on the Member States and the Commission to continue to support national scientific institutes to enable them to make as accurate as possible assessments of bluefin tuna stocks and the effects of the recovery plan. To this end, it welcomes the creation of the scientific monitoring centre involving national authorities, scientific experts and trap operators, and the private initiatives developed by businesses and scientific experts to help improve understanding of this species.

4.6

With regard to closed seasons for the purse seine fleet, the EESC considers that the proposals drawn up by scientific experts to change the current seasons should be carefully studied in order to make this activity more sustainable, in economic, social and environmental terms.