The Committee on Fisheries adopted the report drawn up by Raül ROMEVA i RUEDA (Greens/EFA, ES) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a catch documentation programme for bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus and amending Regulation (EC) No 1984/2003.
It recommended that the European Parliament’s position at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure (formerly known as the codecision procedure) should be to amend the Commission proposal as follows:
Amendments: the committee recalls that the Commission proposal is intended to incorporate into Union legislation the Bluefin Tuna Catch Documentation (BCD) Programme, adopted by ICCAT in 2007 and amended in 2008. However, before this BCD Programme could be so incorporated, it was amended at the 2009 meeting of ICCAT at Recife, Brazil. The report thus incorporates the latest developments at the Recife meeting. Changes resulting from the Recife meeting are the focus of the amendments to the present report.
The major innovations of the Recife meeting, and hence the subject of the amendments in the present report, relate to:
Comitology: the Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in respect of the transposition of new conservation measures adopted by ICCAT, thus updating and supplementing the annexes to this Regulation.
Subject matter: the Regulation establishes a Community bluefin tuna catch documentation programme incorporating the provisions of the ICCAT bluefin tuna catch documentation programme with a view to identifying the origin of all bluefin tuna.
General provisions: the report adds that farm Member States shall ensure that bluefin tuna catches are placed in separate cages or series of cages and partitioned on the basis of the Member State or CPC of origin. By way of derogation, arm Member States shall ensure that bluefin tuna caught in the context of a joint fishing operation are placed in separate cages or series of cages and partitioned on the basis of joint fishing operations. Farm Member States shall ensure that bluefin tuna are harvested from farms in the year in which they were caught, or before the beginning of the purse seiners fishing season if harvested in the following year. Where harvesting operations are not completed within that period, farm Member States shall complete and transmit an annual carry-over declaration to the Commission within 10 days of the end of that period. Such declaration shall include: quantities (expressed in kg) and number of fish intended to be carried over; year of catch, size composition, flag Member State or CPC, ICCAT number and name of the catching vessel, references of the catch document corresponding to the catches carried over, name and ICCAT number of the fattening facility, cage number, and information on harvested quantities (expressed in kg), when completed. The Commission shall forward the declarations to the ICCAT Secretariat within 5 days. Quantities carried over shall be placed in separate cages or series of cages in the farm on the basis of the catch year.
Review: the Commission shall review the Regulation following the recommendations adopted by ICCAT, taking into account the updated scientific opinions on stocks size which will be submitted at its meetings and shall put forward any amendments that may be necessary.
Annex IIIa: the new Annex contains instructions for the issuing, numbering, completion and validation of the catch document.