European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) 2014-2020

The Commission presents an amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

To recall, the initial Commission proposal for the EMFF Regulation of 2 December 2011 aligned the management and control system for the EMFF with the arrangements proposed for the EAFRD.

During the examination of the EMFF proposal in the Fisheries Working Group in the Council, a number of Member States expressed reservations as regards the shift to the system proposed by the Commission for management and control and for financial management. Although a majority of Member States indicated that they prefer alignment of the EMFF with the delivery system for cohesion policy, they also highlighted the need to take into account the principle of proportionality.

In order to facilitate the already on-going negotiations in the Council and the European Parliament, the Commission proposes a simultaneous amendment of the Commission proposals for the Common Provisions Regulation and of the EMFF Regulation to ensure simple and streamlined integration of the EMFF into an already existing set of rules for cohesion policy.

The objective is to build on the experience attained in previous programming periods and facilitates a smooth transition from one programming period to the next.

The main amendments proposed are as follows:

• the EMFF is integrated in the relevant provisions in the Common Provisions Regulation which were initially specific to cohesion policy, creating a new Part Four of the Common Provisions Regulation which applies to cohesion policy and to the EMFF;
• the respective provisions (which correspond to the delivery arrangements of the EAFRD or overlap with the articles of the Common Provisions Regulations in its amended form) are deleted from the EMFF Regulation and appropriate references to the CPR are introduced in the EMFF Regulation, where necessary.

Recitals and definitions are aligned with the changes to the articles and amendment of the structure of the regulations. The terminology used in the new Part Four is adjusted to accommodate the specificities of the EMFF and in certain instances it is clarified that the Fund-specific rules under the EMFF may set out complementary rules.

The amended proposal will have no budgetary implications.