PURPOSE: to repeal Directive 83/515/EEC and 11 obsolete Decisions in the field of the Common Fisheries Policy.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.
CONTENT: the Commission launched an initiative aimed at updating and simplifying the Community acquis within the context of the "Better Regulation" programme. One of the main actions relates to the identification of the acquis in force through the screening of the Acts listed in the Directory of the legislation in force. When the screening reveals that legal texts formally in force are no longer active, the Commission will proceed to repeal those Acts, through a formal Commission Act, a Proposal for a Council Act, or a formal recognition of obsolescence, as appropriate, for clarity and legal security's sake. Repeal of acts that have become obsolete in the field of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is foreseen in the Simplification Rolling Programme adopted in the framework of the implementation of the Commission's strategy for simplification of the regulatory environment.
In particular, the Commission committed to revise the body of the Community law related to this policy when adopting the 2006-2008 Action Plan for simplifying and improving the Common Fisheries Policy.
As revealed by the screening carried out, a number of Acts adopted by the Council are indeed obsolete, though they are still formally in force. In order to remove these Acts from the active acquis, a formal Council Act is required, which shall have the same form of the Act to be repealed (i.e. Decision, Regulation and Directive). However, since only one Directive shall be repealed and the form is close to that of a Decision, this is inserted in the Proposal relating to the repealing of Decisions. The second proposal gathers Council Regulations which should also be repealed as obsolete (refer to CNS/2009/0024).