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EC/Mauritania Fisheries Partnership Agreement: fishing opportunities and financial contribution. Extension of the Protocol

2019/0210(NLE)

PURPOSE: to allocate the fishing opportunities under the Protocol setting out the fishing opportunities and financial contribution provided for in the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania for a maximum period of one year.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

BACKGROUND: this procedure is initiated in parallel with the procedures for Council Decisions authorising the signature and provisional application and the conclusion of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters concerning the extension for a maximum period of one year of the Protocol setting out the fishing opportunities and the financial contribution for the implementation of the Agreement.

Pending completion of the negotiations on the renewal of the Agreement and its Protocol, the Commission negotiated, on behalf of the European Union, an Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters on an extension for a maximum period of one year to the Protocol setting out the fishing opportunities and financial contribution for implementing the Agreement. At the end of those negotiations, the Exchange of Letters was initialled on 4 September 2019.

The method of allocating these fishing opportunities among the Member States should be defined.

CONTENT: the draft Council Regulation provides that the fishing opportunities established by the Protocol setting out the fishing opportunities and financial contribution provided for in the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community and Mauritania for the period of validity of the Protocol shall be allocated among the Member States as follows:

 

  • Vessels fishing for crustaceans other than spiny lobster and crab: 5 000 tonnes (Spain 4 150 tonnes, Italy 600 tonnes, Portugal 250 tonnes) and 25 vessels;
  • Black hake (non-freezer) trawlers and bottom longliners: 6 000 tonnes (Spain) and 6 vessels;
  • Black hake (freezer) trawlers: (Spain : black hake: 3 500 tonnes, squid: 1 450 tonnes, cuttlefish: 600 tonnes);
  • Vessels fishing for demersal species other than black hake with gear other than trawls: 3 000 tonnes and 6 vessels;
  • Tuna seiners: 12 500 tonnes (reference tonnage) and 25 vessels; Spain : 14 annual licences ; France : 1 annual licence;
  • Pole-and-line tuna vessels and longliners: 7 500 tonnes (reference tonnage) and 15 vessels;
  • Pelagic freezer trawlers: 225 000 tonnes (Germany 12 560 tonnes; France 2 615 tonnes; Latvia 53 913 tonnes; Lithuania 57 642 tonnes; Netherlands 62 592 tonnes; Poland 26 112 tonnes; United Kingdom 8531 tonnes; Ireland 8 535 tonnes), and 19 vessels;
  • Non-freezer pelagic vessels: 15 000 tonnes (Ireland).

The Regulation shall apply from the date of signature of the Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters.