Regulation (EU) 2023/675 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2023 laying down conservation and management measures for the conservation of southern bluefin tuna

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 43(2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2),

Whereas:

(1) The objective of the Common Fisheries Policy (‘CFP’), as set out in Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3), is to ensure that the exploitation of living aquatic resources contributes to long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability.

(2) Under Council Decision 98/392/EC (4), the Union approved the United Nations Convention of 10 December 1982 on the Law of the Sea. Under Council Decision 98/414/EC (5), the Union approved the Agreement on the implementation of that convention relating to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks, which contains principles and rules with regard to the conservation and management of the living resources of the sea. In the framework of its wider international obligations, the Union participates in efforts made in international waters to conserve fish stocks and strives to strengthen global ocean governance and to promote sustainable fisheries management.

(3) The Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (‘the Convention’), which established the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (‘CCSBT’), does not provide for the accession of regional economic integration organisations such as the Union. To promote cooperation in the conservation and management of southern bluefin tuna, the CCSBT has created the Extended Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (‘Extended Commission’), in which the Union can participate as a member. Decisions adopted by the Extended Commission become decisions of the CCSBT at the end of the session of the CCSBT meeting to which they were reported by the Extended Commission, unless the CCSBT decides to the contrary. Members of the Extended Commission have the same obligations as members of the CCSBT, including compliance with the decisions of the CCSBT and the provision of financial contributions to the CCSBT.

(4) Pursuant to Council Decision (EU) 2015/2437 (6), the Union is a member of the Extended Commission.

(5) The Extended Commission adopts annual conservation and management measures that its members, including the Union, have firmly committed to respecting and complying with.

(6) Unlike in other regional fisheries management organisations (‘RFMOs’) in which the Union participates, the Union has no fishing vessels that target southern bluefin tuna and it has reported only accidental by-catch of that species in the past and none since 2012. Nevertheless, it is still appropriate for the Union to comply with the relevant conservation and management measures adopted by the CCSBT relating to the activities and characteristics of the Union fleet and in relation to the trade in southern bluefin tuna.

(7) The area of distribution of southern bluefin tuna overlaps with the convention areas of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, where the Union long-line fleet that targets tropical tunas and tuna-like species has reported limited amounts of by-catch of southern bluefin tuna in the past.

(8) This Regulation implements into Union law the relevant resolutions of the CCSBT adopted by 2020, except for measures which already form part of Union law. This Regulation covers only the CCSBT provisions applicable to the Union, taking into consideration in particular the specificities of the Union fleet, such as no targeted fishery, exclusively accidental by-catch in the past and none since 2012 and no transhipments or landing, and the trade in southern bluefin tuna. In practice, most obligations will only be triggered if the Union fleet accidentally has by-catches of southern bluefin tuna, which has not occurred since 2012, and retains those fish on-board, something that has not been reported to date.

(9) To ensure compliance with Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013, Union legislation has been adopted to establish a system of control, inspection and enforcement, which includes the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. In particular, Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 (7) establishes a Union system for control, inspection and enforcement with a global and integrated approach to ensure compliance with all the rules of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011 (8) lays down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009. Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 (9) establishes a Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing. Those Regulations already cover a number of the measures laid down in CCSBT resolutions. It is therefore not necessary to cover those measures in this Regulation.

(10) Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013, the position of the Union in RFMOs and Union activities in international fisheries organisations are to be based on the best available scientific advice to ensure that fishery resources are managed in accordance with the objectives of the CFP, in particular to ensure that exploitation of living marine biological resources is environmentally sustainable in the long-term and restores and maintains populations of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield, to provide conditions for an economically viable and competitive fishing capture and processing industry and land-based fishing-related activity, to cooperate with RFMOs to strengthen their performance in reinforcing compliance with measures to combat IUU fishing, and to contribute to the availability of sustainable food supplies.

(11) In order to swiftly implement future CCSBT resolutions into Union law, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending this Regulation concerning the targeting of southern bluefin tuna by Union fishing vessels, the information provided for in the Record of Vessels, the time-limits or periods related to the submission of the information in the catch tagging forms, the retention of catch documentation scheme documents, the transmission of transhipment notifications, the transmission of information to the Secretariat established by the CCSBT (‘Secretariat’) concerning the IUU vessel list and investigation reports, the transmission of information concerning points of contact for port inspections, the transmission of by-catch notifications, the submission of annual reports and Annexes I to IV. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (10). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

(12) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11) and delivered an opinion on 20 September 2021. Personal data processed in the framework of this Regulation should be treated in accordance with the applicable provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12) and Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. In order to ensure effective enforcement of this Regulation, the personal data should be stored for a period of 10 years. In the event that the personal data in question are needed for the follow-up on an infringement, an inspection or judicial or administrative procedures, it should be possible to store those data for a period exceeding 10 years, but no longer than 20 years,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation implements into Union law management, conservation and control measures established under the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna that are binding on the Union.

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation shall apply to:

(a) Union fishing vessels carrying out fishing in the area of distribution of southern bluefin tuna under the Convention; and

(b) Member States importing, exporting or re-exporting southern bluefin tuna.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘SBF’ means southern bluefin tuna or fish products originating from southern bluefin tuna;

(2) ‘Record of Vessels’ means the record of vessels established by the CCSBT authorised to fish for or by-catch SBF;

(3) ‘Union fishing vessel’ means any vessel flying the flag of a Member State, used or intended for use for the purposes of commercial exploitation of marine biological resources, including support vessels, fish processing vessels, vessels engaged in transhipment and carrier vessels equipped for the transportation of fishery products, but excluding container vessels;

(4) ‘transhipment’ means the unloading of all or any fishery product(s) on board a fishing vessel to another fishing vessel;

(5) ‘SBF tag’ means an external label attached to the whole SBF that contains information on the individual fish;

(6) ‘CDS’ means the specific catch documentation scheme for SBF established by the CCSBT comprising the catch monitoring form, catch tagging form and export or re-export form;

(7) ‘catch monitoring form’ means the document set out in Annex I, that records information on the catch, transhipment, export and import of SBF;

(8) ‘catch tagging form’ means the document set out in Annex II, that records information on individual fish tagged;

(9) ‘import’ means the introduction of SBF into the territory of the Union, including for transhipment purposes at ports in its territory;

(10) ‘export or re-export form’ means the document set out in Annex III, that contains information on SBF already tracked on the catch monitoring form of an import that is, either in full or part, exported or re-exported;

(11) ‘export’ means any movement to a third country of SBF harvested by Union fishing vessels;

(12) ‘re-export’ means any movement from the territory of the Union of SBF that had been previously imported into the territory of the Union;

(13) ‘whole SBF’ means SBF which has not undergone filleting or loining;

(14) ‘processed SBF’ means SBF which has undergone cleaning, gilling gutting, freezing, removal of fins, operculae (gill plates/covers) and tail and removal of the head or parts of the head;

(15) ‘SBF parts other than the meat’ means the head, eyes, roe, guts and tail;

(16) ‘transhipment declaration’ means the document set out in Annex IV;

(17) ‘conservation and management measures’ means the resolutions and other binding measures adopted by the CCSBT;

(18) ‘Annual VMS summary report’ means the document the format of which is set out in Attachment A to CCSBT-CC/0910/06 or in any document which supersedes it, in which the relevant VMS information is provided;

(19) ‘Compliance Committee’ means the subsidiary body of the CCSBT that monitors, reviews and assesses compliance with conservation and management measures;

(20) ‘draft IUU vessel list’ means the initial list drawn up by the Secretariat.

Article 4

General prohibition on the targeting of SBF

The targeting of SBF by Union fishing vessels shall be prohibited. Any SBF retained on board Union fishing vessels shall count exclusively as by-catch.

Article 5

Record of vessels

(a) Lloyds/International Maritime Organization (IMO) Number;

(b) name of vessel(s), register number(s);

(c) previous name(s) (if any);

(d) previous flag(s) (if any);

(e) previous details of deletion from other registries (if any);

(f) international radio call sign(s) (if any);

(g) type of vessel(s), length overall and gross registered tonnage (GRT);

(h) name and address of owner(s);

(i) name and address of operator(s);

(j) gear(s) used; and

(k) time period authorised for fishing SBF or transhipping.

Article 6

Tagging of SBF

(a) capable of being securely fastened to SBF;

(b) non-reusable;

(c) tamper-proof;

(d) secure from counterfeiting or replication;

(e) capable of withstanding at least minus sixty degrees Celsius temperatures, salt water and rough-handling; and

(f) food safe.

Article 7

Catch tagging form

Article 8

Trade in SBF

Article 9

Imports of SBF into the Union

Article 10

Exports or re-exports of SBF