The Committee on Fisheries adopted a report by Struan STEVENSON (ECR, UK) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1300/2008 of 18 December 2008 establishing a multi-annual plan for the stock of herring distributed to the west of Scotland and the fisheries exploiting that stock. The committee recommends that the position of the European Parliament in first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure should be to amend the Commission proposal. The main amendments are as follows:
Definitions : the committee amended the meaning of “herring stock in the area west of Scotland” which is defined as the stock of herring (clupea harengus)distributed to the west of Scotland which currently inhabits Union and international waters of ICES zones Vb and VIb and the part of ICES zone VIa which lies east of the meridian of longitude 7°W and north of the parallel of latitude 55°N, or west of the meridian of longitude 7°W and north of the parallel of latitude 56°, excluding the Clyde.
Members state that the current definition seems more appropriate than the one proposed by the Commission, which would only refer to Scottish waters. The purpose of the modification of Regulation (EC) No 1300/2008 is not to extend the geographical area of application of the latter. The current restriction concerning ICES zone VIa has thus been re-introduced.
Delegated acts and ordinary legislative procedure: Members consider that it should be explicitly stated that any amendment to the multi-annual plan, apart from the exception specified in the text on revision of maximum fishing mortality rates and associated spawning stock biomass levels, would have to be adopted via the ordinary legislative procedure. Delegated acts are limited as to their scope to the modification of fishing mortality rates and spawning stock biomass levels and may be adopted only if the conditions specified in the text are fulfilled.
Scientific advice: the committee clarified the text to ensure that the Commission should be obliged to use scientific data from the STECF and to consult the Pelagic Regional Advisory Council before taking any decision on adopting delegated acts fixing new values for fishing mortality rates and spawning stock biomass levels. The STECF and the Pelagic Regional Advisory Council should also be mandatorily involved in the process of evaluating the multi-annual plan.