Council of the
European Union
Brussels, 17 January 2022
(OR. en)
5380/22
Interinstitutional File:
2018/0193(COD)
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CODEC 46
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From:
General Secretariat of the Council
To:
Delegations
No. prev. doc.:
ST 14237/21 INIT PECHE 447 CODEC 1559
Subject:
Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND
OF THE COUNCIL amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, and
amending Council Regulations (EC) No 768/2005, (EC) No 1967/2006,
(EC) No 1005/2008, and Regulation (EU) No 2016/1139 of the European
Parliament and of the Council as regards fisheries control
– Comments by the Netherlands
Delegations will find attached written comments by the Dutch delegation on the above-mentioned
document.
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Dutch comments on document ST 14237/21
Row 21 and Row 38
As we have said several times, we believe that the recitals should make it clear that the new
definition of fishing vessel does not affect the concept of fishing vessel in the basic regulation.
Without further explanation, the new "categories" of fishing vessels would suddenly also count for
the capacity ceiling and furthermore the entry/exit scheme also applies to the registration of these
vessels.
Against this background, we find it undesirable for other vessels to be explicitly referred to as
“other categories of fishing vessels” in recital 10. Therefore we are opposed that the sentence
“While most of the provisions of this Regulation should relate to catching vessels, an effective
Union fisheries control system requires that in certain cases other vessels, which play a role in the
exploitation of marine biological resources are also covered” is replaced by “For the purposes of the
effective Union fisheries control system it is appropriate to specify where provisions of this
Regulation apply only to catching vessels or also to other categories of fishing vessels”.
Replacing fishing vessels by catching vessels in Recital 27 does solve the problem of the capacity
ceiling and the application of the entry/exit scheme. Moreover, this new wording means that only
the verification of the tonnage of catching vessels is simplified and that therefore the verification of
the other vessels is not simplified. The adaptation of this recital is difficult to understand without
considering the articles concerned.
Finally, we note that in the Control Regulation the term “Union fishing vessel” is frequently used.
There is no definition of “Union fishing vessel” in the Control Regulation and according to Article
5 the definition of Union fishing vessel in Article 4 of the basic Regulation applies: 'Union fishing
vessel' means a fishing vessel flying the flag of a Member State and registered in the Union.
Is this a fishing vessel in the concept of the basic Regulation or of the Control Regulation?
Row 150a
According to the EC's explanation, the terms Towing vessels and Auxiliary vessels refer to vessels
active in tuna fishing. As a result, these vessels have a specific meaning that deviates from the
normal meaning and to clarify this, these terms will have to be defined (just as happened with
'catching vessel' and 'aquaculture vessels').
We therefore propose to include the following definitions:
(31a) ‘auxiliary vessel’ means any vessel used to transport dead bluefin tuna (not processed) from a
transport/farming cage, a purse seine net or a trap to a designated port and/or to a processing vessel;
(31b) ‘towing vessel’ means any vessel used for towing cages;
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