By Council Decision 98/416/EC1, the Union concluded the Agreement establishing the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (‘GFCM Agreement’). Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, Romania and Slovenia are also Contracting Parties to the GFCM Agreement.

The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) is responsible for the adoption of measures designed to ensure the long term conservation and sustainable use of the fishery resources and the sustainable development of aquaculture in the GFCM Agreement area. Such measures may become binding upon the Union.

Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council2 provides that the Union is to ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term and are managed in a way that is consistent with the objectives of achieving economic, social and employment benefits, and of contributing to the availability of food supplies. It also provides that the Union is to apply the precautionary approach to fisheries management, and is to aim to ensure that exploitation of marine biological resources restores and maintains population of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield. It further provides that the Union is to take management and conservation measures based on the best available scientific advice, to support the development of scientific knowledge and advice, to gradually eliminate discards and to promote fishing methods that contribute to more selective fishing and the avoidance and reduction, as far as possible, of unwanted catches, to fishing with low impact on marine ecosystem and fishery resources. Furthermore, Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 specifically provides that those objectives and principles are to be applied by the Union in the conduct of its external fisheries relations.

As stated in the Joint communication by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission ‘International ocean governance: an agenda for the future of oceans’ and the Council conclusions on that Joint communication, the promotion of measures to support and enhance the effectiveness of regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) and, where relevant, improve their governance is central to the Union's action in these fora.

The Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, to the Council, to the European Economic and Social Committee and to the Committee of the Regions ‘European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy’, refers to specific measures to reduce plastics and marine pollution as well as the loss or abandonment at sea of fishing gear.

As stated in the conclusions of the Ministerial Conference on the Sustainability of Mediterranean Fisheries, which adopted the Malta MedFish4Ever Ministerial Declaration on 30 March 2017 and of the High Level Conference on Black Sea Fisheries and Aquaculture, which adopted the Sofia Ministerial Declaration on 7 June 2018, the promotion of measures to support and enhance data collection and scientific evaluation, ecosystem based fisheries management, a culture of compliance to eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, sustainable small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, greater solidarity and coordination, is central to the Union's action in the GFCM.

It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union's behalf in the meetings of the GFCM for the period 2019-2023, as the GFCM conservation and management measures will be binding on the Union and capable of decisively influencing the content of Union law, namely, Council Regulations (EC) No 1005/20083 and (EC) No 1224/20094, and Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 of the European Parliament and of the Council5.

Currently, the position to be taken on the Union's behalf in the meetings of the GFCM is established by the Council Decision of 19 May 2014 on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the Union, in the GFCM. It is appropriate to repeal that Decision and to replace it by a new Decision which would cover the period 2019-2023.

In view of the evolving nature of fishery resources in the GFCM Agreement area and the consequent need for the position of the Union to take account of new developments, including new scientific and other relevant information presented before or during the meetings of the GFCM, procedures should be established, in line with the principle of sincere cooperation among the Union institutions enshrined in Article 13(2) of the Treaty on European Union, for the year-to-year specification of the Union's position for the period 2019-2023,