Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the Common Fisheries Policy, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1954/2003 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 2371/2002 and (EC) No 639/2004 and Council Decision 2004/585/EC

PART I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Scope

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) shall cover:

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

(b) 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.

The CFP shall cover the activities referred to in paragraph 1 where they are carried out:

(a) on the territory of Member States to which the Treaty applies;

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

(c) by Union fishing vessels outside Union waters; or

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

Article 2

Objectives

In order to reach the objective of progressively restoring and maintaining populations of fish stocks above biomass levels capable of producing maximum sustainable yield, the maximum sustainable yield exploitation rate shall be achieved by 2015 where possible and, on a progressive, incremental basis at the latest by 2020 for all stocks.

The CFP shall, in particular:

(a) 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;

(b) 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;

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

(d) 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;

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

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

(g) 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;

(h) take into account the interests of both consumers and producers;

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

(j) 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.

Article 3

Principles of good governance

The CFP shall be guided by the following principles of good governance:

(a) the clear definition of responsibilities at the Union, regional, national and local levels;

(b) the taking into account of regional specificities, through a regionalised approach;

(c) the establishment of measures in accordance with the best available scientific advice;

(d) a long-term perspective;

(e) administrative cost efficiency;

(f) appropriate involvement of stakeholders, in particular Advisory Councils, at all stages - from conception to implementation of the measures;

(g) the primary responsibility of the flag State;

(h) consistency with other Union policies;

(i) the use of impact assessments as appropriate;

(j) coherence between the internal and external dimension of the CFP;

(k) transparency of data handling in accordance with existing legal requirements, with due respect for private life, the protection of personal data and confidentiality rules; availability of data to the appropriate scientific bodies, other bodies with a scientific or management interest, and other defined end-users.

Article 4

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:

(1) '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;

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

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

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

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

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

(7) '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;

(8) '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;

(9) '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;

(10) 'discards' means catches that are returned to the sea;

(11) '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;

(12) '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;

(13) '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;

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

(15) '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;

(16) '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;

(17) '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;

(18) '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);

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

(20) '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;

(21) '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;

(22) '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;

(23) '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;

(24) '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);

(25) '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;

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

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

(28) '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;

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

(30) '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;

(31) '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;

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

(33) '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;

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

(35) '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;

(36) '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;

(37) '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.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following geographical definitions of geographical areas shall apply:

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

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

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

(d) '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);

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

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

PART II

ACCESS TO WATERS

Article 5

General rules on access to waters

PART III

MEASURES FOR THE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE EXPLOITATION OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES

TITLE I

Conservation measures

Article 6

General provisions

Article 7

Types of conservation measures

Measures for the conservation and sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources may include, inter alia, the following:

(a) multiannual plans under Articles 9 and 10;

(b) targets for the conservation and sustainable exploitation of stocks and related measures to minimise the impact of fishing on the marine environment;

(c) measures to adapt the fishing capacity of fishing vessels to available fishing opportunities;

(d) incentives, including those of an economic nature, such as fishing opportunities, to promote fishing methods that contribute to more selective fishing, to the avoidance and reduction, as far as possible, of unwanted catches, and to fishing with low impact on the marine ecosystem and fishery resources;

(e) measures on the fixing and allocation of fishing opportunities;

(f) measures to achieve the objectives of Article 15;

(g) minimum conservation reference sizes;

(h) pilot projects on alternative types of fishing management techniques and on gears that increase selectivity or that minimise the negative impact of fishing activities on the marine environment;

(i) measures necessary for compliance with obligations under Union environmental legislation adopted pursuant to Article 11;

(j) technical measures as referred to in paragraph 2.

Technical measures may include, inter alia, the following:

(a) characteristics of fishing gears and rules concerning their use;

(b) specifications on the construction of fishing gear, including: (i) modifications or additional devices to improve selectivity or to minimise the negative impact on the ecosystem; (ii) modifications or additional devices to reduce the incidental capture of endangered, threatened and protected species, as well as to reduce other unwanted catches;

(c) limitations or prohibitions on the use of certain fishing gears, and on fishing activities, in certain areas or periods;

(d) requirements for fishing vessels to cease operating in a defined area for a defined minimum period in order to protect temporary aggregations of endangered species, spawning fish, fish below minimum conservation reference size, and other vulnerable marine resources;

(e) specific measures to minimise the negative impact of fishing activities on marine biodiversity and marine ecosystems, including measures to avoid and reduce, as far as possible, unwanted catches.

Article 8

Establishment of fish stock recovery areas

TITLE II

Specific measures

Article 9

Principles and objectives of multiannual plans

Multiannual plans shall cover either:

(a) single species; or

(b) in the case of mixed fisheries or where the dynamics of stocks relate to one another, fisheries exploiting several stocks in a relevant geographical area, taking into account knowledge about the interactions between fish stocks, fisheries and marine ecosystems.

Article 10

Content of multiannual plans

As appropriate and without prejudice to the respective competences under the Treaty, a multiannual plan shall include:

(a) the scope, in terms of stocks, fishery and the area to which the multiannual plan shall be applied;

(b) objectives that are consistent with the objectives set out in Article 2 and with the relevant provisions of Articles 6 and 9;

(c) quantifiable targets such as fishing mortality rates and/or spawning stock biomass;

(d) clear time-frames to reach the quantifiable targets;

(e) conservation reference points consistent with the objectives set out in Article 2;

(f) objectives for conservation and technical measures to be taken in order to achieve the targets set out in Article 15, and measures designed to avoid and reduce, as far as possible, unwanted catches;

(g) safeguards to ensure that quantifiable targets are met, as well as remedial action, where needed, including for situations where the deteriorating quality of data or non-availability put the sustainability of the stock at risk.

A multiannual plan may also include:

(a) other conservation measures, in particular measures to gradually eliminate discards, taking into account the best available scientific advice, or to minimise the negative impact of fishing on the ecosystem, to be further specified, where appropriate, in accordance with Article 18;

(b) quantifiable indicators for periodic monitoring and assessment of progress in achieving the targets of the multiannual plan;

(c) where appropriate, specific objectives for the freshwater part of the life cycle of anadromous and catadromous species.

Article 11

Conservation measures necessary for compliance with obligations under Union environmental legislation

If not all Member States succeed in agreeing on a joint recommendation to be submitted to the Commission in accordance with the first subparagraph within the deadline set therein, or if the joint recommendation is deemed not to be compatible with the requirements referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission may submit a proposal in accordance with the Treaty.

Article 12

Commission measures in case of a serious threat to marine biological resources

Article 13

Member State emergency measures

Article 14

Avoidance and minimisation of unwanted catches

Article 15

Landing obligation