Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/20024 established a Community system for the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

The scope of the CFP includes the conservation of marine biological resources and the management of fisheries targeting them. In addition, it includes, in relation to market measures and financial measures in support of its objectives, fresh water biological resources and aquaculture activities, as well as the processing and marketing of fishery and aquaculture products, where such activities take place on the territory of Member States or in Union waters, including by fishing vessels flying the flag of, and registered in, third countries, by Union fishing vessels, or by nationals of Member States, without prejudice to the primary responsibility of the flag State, bearing in mind the provisions of Article 117 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 19825 (UNCLOS).

Recreational fisheries can have a significant impact on fish resources and Member States should, therefore, ensure that they are conducted in a manner that is compatible with the objectives of the CFP.

The CFP should ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities contribute to long-term environmental, economic, and social sustainability. It should include rules that aim to ensure the traceability, security and quality of products marketed in the Union. Furthermore, the CFP should contribute to increased productivity, to a fair standard of living for the fisheries sector including small-scale fisheries, and to stable markets, and it should ensure the availability of food supplies and that they reach consumers at reasonable prices. The CFP should contribute to the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and should help to achieve the objectives set out therein.

The Union is a contracting party to UNCLOS6 and, pursuant to Council Decision 98/414/EC7, to the United Nations Agreement on the implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks of 4 December 19958 (UN Fish Stocks Agreement) and, pursuant to Council Decision 96/428/EC9, to the Agreement to promote compliance with international conservation and management measures by fishing vessels on the high seas of 24 November 1993 of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations10.

Those international instruments predominantly lay down conservation obligations, including obligations to take conservation and management measures designed to maintain or restore marine resources at levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield both within sea areas under national jurisdiction and on the high seas, and to cooperate with other States to that end, obligations to apply the precautionary approach widely to conservation, management and exploitation of fish stocks, obligations to ensure compatibility of conservation and management measures where marine resources occur in sea areas of different jurisdictional status and obligations to have due regard to other legitimate uses of the seas. The CFP should, therefore, contribute to the Union's implementation of its international obligations under those international instruments. Where Member States adopt conservation and management measures, for which they have been empowered within the framework of the CFP, they should also act in a manner which is fully consistent with the international obligations regarding conservation and cooperation under those international instruments.

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg in 2002, the Union and its Member States committed themselves to act against the continued decline of many fish stocks. Therefore, the Union should improve the CFP by adapting exploitation rates so as to ensure that, within a reasonable time-frame, the exploitation of marine biological resources restores and maintains populations of harvested stocks above levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield. The exploitation rates should be achieved by 2015. Achieving those exploitation rates by a later date should be allowed only if achieving them by 2015 would seriously jeopardise the social and economic sustainability of the fishing fleets involved. After 2015, those rates should be achieved as soon as possible and in any event no later than 2020. Where scientific information is insufficient to determine those levels, approximative parameters may be considered.

Management decisions relating to maximum sustainable yield in mixed fisheries should take into account the difficulty of fishing all stocks in a mixed fishery at maximum sustainable yield at the same time, in particular where scientific advice indicates that it is very difficult to avoid the phenomenon of "choke species" by increasing the selectivity of the fishing gears used. Appropriate scientific bodies should be requested to provide advice on the appropriate fishing mortality levels in such circumstances.

The CFP should ensure coherence with the fisheries targets laid down in the Decision by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity on the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 – 2020, and with the biodiversity targets adopted by the European Council of 25 and 26 March 2010.

Sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources should be based on the precautionary approach, which derives from the precautionary principle referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 191(2) of the Treaty, taking into account available scientific data.

The CFP should contribute to the protection of the marine environment, to the sustainable management of all commercially exploited species, and in particular to the achievement of good environmental status by 2020, as set out in Article 1(1) of Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council11.

The CFP should also contribute to the supplying of highly nutritional food to the Union market and to reducing the Union market's dependence on food imports. It should also foster direct and indirect job creation and economic development in coastal areas.

An ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management needs to be implemented, environmental impacts of fishing activities should be limited and unwanted catches should be avoided and reduced as far as possible.

It is important for the management of the CFP to be guided by principles of good governance. Those principles include decision-making based on best available scientific advice, broad stakeholder involvement and a long-term perspective. The successful management of the CFP also depends on a clear definition of responsibilities at Union, regional, national and local levels and on the mutual compatibility of the measures taken and their consistency with other Union policies.

The CFP should contribute to the improvement of safety and working conditions for fishing operators.

The CFP should pay full regard, where relevant, to animal health, animal welfare, food and feed safety.

Since all matters related to Europe's oceans and seas are interlinked, the CFP should be implemented in a way that is consistent with other Union policies and, in particular, that takes into account interactions with Union actions in other maritime policy areas. Coherence should be ensured in the management of different sectoral policies within the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Celtic seas, Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast, Mediterranean and Black Sea sea basins.

Union fishing vessels should have equal access to Union waters and resources subject to the rules of the CFP.

Existing rules restricting access to resources within the 12 nautical mile zones of Member States have operated satisfactorily, benefiting conservation by restricting fishing effort in the most sensitive part of Union waters. Those rules have also preserved the traditional fishing activities on which the social and economic development of certain coastal communities is highly dependent. Those rules should therefore continue to apply. Member States should endeavour to give preferential access for small-scale, artisanal or coastal fishermen.

Small offshore islands which are dependent on fishing should, where appropriate, be especially recognised and supported in order to enable them to survive and prosper.

Marine biological resources around the Union outermost regions referred to in the first paragraph of Article 349 of the Treaty should be especially protected since they contribute to the preservation of the local economy of those territories, having regard to their structural, social and economic situation. Certain fishing activities in those waters should therefore be limited to fishing vessels registered in the ports of those territories.

In order to contribute to the conservation of living aquatic resources and marine ecosystems, the Union should endeavour to protect areas that are biologically sensitive, by designating them as protected areas. In such areas, it should be possible to restrict or to prohibit fishing activities. When deciding which areas to designate, particular attention should be paid to those in which there is clear evidence of heavy concentrations of fish below minimum conservation reference size and of spawning grounds, and to areas which are deemed to be bio-geographically sensitive. Account should also be taken of existing conservation areas. In order to facilitate the designation process, Member States should identify suitable areas, including areas that form part of a coherent network, and, where appropriate, should cooperate with one another, preparing and sending joint recommendations to the Commission. In order to establish protected areas more effectively, it should be possible for the Commission to be empowered to establish them in a multiannual plan. In order to ensure a suitable level of democratic accountability and control, the Commission should regularly report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the functioning of those protected areas.

The objective of sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources is more effectively achieved through a multiannual approach to fisheries management, establishing as a priority multiannual plans reflecting the specificities of different fisheries.

Multiannual plans should, where possible, cover multiple stocks where those stocks are jointly exploited. The multiannual plans should establish the framework for the sustainable exploitation of stocks and marine ecosystems concerned, defining clear time-frames and safeguard mechanisms for unforeseen developments. Multiannual plans should also be governed by clearly defined management objectives in order to contribute to the sustainable exploitation of the stocks and to the protection of the marine ecosystems concerned. Those plans should be adopted in consultation with Advisory Councils, operators in the fishing industry, scientists and other stakeholders having an interest in fisheries management.

Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council12, Council Directive 92/43/EEC13 and Directive 2008/56/EC impose certain obligations on Member States as regards special protection areas, special areas of conservation and marine protected areas, respectively. Such measures might require the adoption of measures falling under the CFP. It is, therefore, appropriate to authorise Member States to adopt, in the waters under their sovereignty or jurisdiction, such conservation measures that are necessary to comply with their obligations under those Union acts where such measures do not affect the fisheries interests of other Member States. Where such measures might affect fisheries interests of other Member States, the power to adopt such measures should be granted to the Commission and recourse should be had to regional cooperation among the Member States concerned.

Measures are needed to reduce the current high levels of unwanted catches and to gradually eliminate discards. Unwanted catches and discards constitute a substantial waste and negatively affect the sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources and marine ecosystems and the financial viability of fisheries. An obligation to land all catches ("the landing obligation") of species which are subject to catch limits and, in the Mediterranean Sea, also catches of species which are subject to minimum sizes, made during fishing activities in Union waters or by Union fishing vessels should be established and gradually implemented and rules that have so far obliged fishermen to discard should be repealed.

The landing obligation should be introduced on a fishery-by-fishery basis. Fishermen should be allowed to continue discarding species which, according to the best available scientific advice, have a high survival rate when released into the sea.

In order to make the landing obligation workable and to mitigate the effect of varying yearly catch compositions, Member States should be allowed to transfer quotas between years, up to a certain percentage.

In the management of the landing obligation, it is necessary that Member States do their utmost to reduce unwanted catches. To this end, improvements of selective fishing techniques to avoid and reduce, as far as possible, unwanted catches must have high priority. It is important for Member States to distribute quotas between vessels in a mix that reflects as far as possible the expected composition of species in the fisheries. In the event of a mismatch between available quotas and actual fishing pattern, Member States should consider adjustments through quota swaps with other Member States, including on a permanent basis. Member States should also consider facilitating the pooling by vessel owners of individual quotas, for example at the level of producer organisations or groups of vessel owners. Ultimately, Member States should consider counting by-catch species against the quota of the target species, depending on the conservation status of the by-catch species.

The destination of landings of catches of fish under the minimum conservation reference size should be limited and should exclude sale for human consumption.

In order to cater for unwanted catches that are unavoidable even when all the measures for their reduction are applied, certain de minimis exemptions from the landing obligation should be established for the fisheries to which the landing obligation applies, primarily through multiannual plans.

Subject to scientific advice and without jeopardising the objectives of maximum sustainable yield or increasing fishing mortality, where the landing obligation, including the obligation to document catches, applies, an increase of related fishing opportunities should be possible, in order to take into account the fact that fish previously discarded will be landed.

Access to a fishery should be based on transparent and objective criteria including those of an environmental, social and economic nature. Member States should promote responsible fishing by providing incentives to those operators who fish in the least environmentally damaging way and who provide the greatest benefits for society.

For stocks for which no multiannual plan has been established, exploitation rates delivering maximum sustainable yield should be ensured by setting catch or fishing effort limits. If available data is insufficient, fisheries should be managed by using approximative parameters.

In view of the precarious economic state of the fishing industry and the dependence of certain coastal communities on fishing, it is necessary to ensure the relative stability of fishing activities by allocating fishing opportunities among Member States, based on a predictable share of the stocks for each Member State.

Such relative stability of fishing activities, given the temporary biological situation of stocks, should safeguard and take full account of the particular needs of regions where local communities are especially dependent on fisheries and related activities, as decided by the Council in its Resolution of 3 November 197614, and in particular Annex VII thereto.

Therefore, it is in this sense that the concept of relative stability should be understood.

The Commission should be authorised to adopt temporary measures in the event of a serious threat, requiring immediate action, to the conservation of marine biological resources or to the marine ecosystem resulting from fishing activities. Those measures should be established within defined time-frames and should be operational for a fixed period of time.

Member States should cooperate at regional level in order to adopt joint recommendations and other instruments for the development and implementation of conservation measures and measures affecting fishing activity in areas protected by environmental law. In the framework of regional cooperation, the Commission should only adopt conservation measures through implementing acts or delegated acts where all Member States concerned in a region agree on a joint recommendation. In the absence of a joint recommendation, the Commission should submit a proposal for the relevant measures pursuant to the Treaty.

Member States should be empowered to adopt conservation and management measures for stocks in Union waters applicable solely to Union fishing vessels flying their flag.

In their 12 nautical mile zones, Member States should be empowered to adopt conservation and management measures applicable to all Union fishing vessels, provided that, where such measures apply to Union fishing vessels from other Member States, they are non-discriminatory, prior consultation of other Member States concerned has taken place and the Union has not adopted measures specifically addressing conservation and management within the 12 nautical mile zone concerned.

Member States should be able to introduce a system of transferable fishing concessions.

Member States should take specific measures to align the number of Union fishing vessels with available resources, based on their assessments of the balance between the fishing capacity of their fleets and the fishing opportunities available to them. The assessments should be made in accordance with Commission guidelines and be presented in an annual report to be transmitted to the Commission. Those reports should be made public. Each Member State should be able to choose the measures and instruments which it wishes to adopt in order to reduce excessive fishing capacity.

In addition, compulsory maximum fleet capacity ceilings and national entry/exit schemes in relation to decommissioning funding should be maintained for the purpose of managing and adjusting fishing capacity.

Member States should record the minimum information on characteristics and activities of Union fishing vessels flying their flag. Those records should be made available to the Commission for the purpose of monitoring the size of Member States' fleets.

Fisheries management based on the best available scientific advice requires harmonised, reliable and accurate data sets. Therefore, Member States should collect data on fleets and their fishing activities, in particular biological data on catches, including discards and survey information on fish stocks and on the potential environmental impact of fishing activities on the marine ecosystem. Member States should manage and make the collected data available to end-users and to other interested parties. Member States should cooperate with each other and with the Commission to coordinate data collection activities. Where relevant, Member States should also cooperate with third countries regarding data collection. Member States should provide the Commission, for its assessment, with an annual report on their data collection activities, which shall be made public.

Data collection should include data which facilitate the economic assessment of undertakings active in the fisheries sector, in aquaculture and in the processing of fisheries and aquaculture products and of employment trends in those industries.

The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), as established by Commission Decision 2005/629/EC15, may be consulted on matters pertaining to the conservation and management of marine biological resources in order to ensure the required assistance of highly qualified scientific personnel, particularly in the application of biological, economic, environmental, social and technical disciplines.

Policy-oriented fisheries science should be reinforced by means of nationally-adopted fisheries scientific data collection, research and innovation programmes implemented in coordination with other Member States and within Union research and innovation frameworks. Better cooperation between industry and scientists should also be fostered.

The Union should promote the objectives of the CFP internationally, ensuring that Union fishing activities outside Union waters are based on the same principles and standards as those applicable under Union law, and promoting a level–playing field for Union operators and third-country operators. To this end, the Union should seek to lead the process of strengthening the performance of regional and international organisations in order to better enable them to conserve and manage marine living resources under their purview, including combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The Union should cooperate with third countries and international organisations for the purpose of improving compliance with international measures, including combating IUU. The position of the Union should be based on the best available scientific advice.

Sustainable fisheries partnership agreements with third countries should ensure that Union fishing activities in third country waters are based on the best available scientific advice and relevant information exchange, ensuring a sustainable exploitation of the marine biological resources, transparency as regards the determination of the surplus and, consequently, a management of the resources that is consistent with the objectives of the CFP. Those agreements, which provide for access to resources commensurate with the interests of the Union fleet in exchange for a financial contribution from the Union, should contribute to the establishment of a high quality governance framework to ensure, in particular, efficient data collection, monitoring, control and surveillance measures.

Respect for democratic principles and human rights, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant international human rights instruments, and for the principle of the rule of law, should constitute an essential element of sustainable fisheries partnership agreements, which should contain a specific human rights clause. The introduction of a human rights clause in sustainable fisheries partnership agreements should be fully consistent with the overall Union development policy objectives.

Aquaculture should contribute to the preservation of the food production potential on a sustainable basis throughout the Union so as to guarantee long-term food security, including food supplies, as well as growth and employment for Union citizens, and to contribute to meeting the growing world demand for aquatic food.

The Commission's Strategy for the Sustainable Development of European Aquaculture adopted in 2009, which was welcomed and endorsed by the Council and welcomed by the European Parliament, noted the need for the creation and promotion of a level-playing field for aquaculture as the basis for its sustainable development.

Aquaculture activities in the Union are influenced by different conditions across national borders, including as regards authorisations for the operators. Therefore, Union strategic guidelines for national strategic plans should be developed to improve the competitiveness of the aquaculture industry, supporting its development and innovation, and encouraging economic activity, diversification and improving the quality of life in coastal and inland areas. Furthermore, mechanisms should be introduced for the exchange between Member States of information and best practices through an open method of coordination of national measures concerning business security, access to Union waters and space, and the simplification of licensing procedures.

The specific nature of aquaculture requires an Advisory Council for stakeholder consultation on elements of Union policies which could affect aquaculture.

There is a need to strengthen the competitiveness of the Union fishery and aquaculture sector, and for simplification in support of better management of its production and marketing activities. The common market organisation for fishery and aquaculture products should ensure a level-playing field for all fishery and aquaculture products marketed in the Union regardless of their origin, should enable consumers to make better informed choices and support responsible consumption, and should improve the economic knowledge and understanding of the Union markets along the supply chain.

The common market organisation should be implemented in compliance with international commitments of the Union, in particular with regard to the provisions of the World Trade Organisation.

In order to ensure compliance with the rules of the CFP, an effective system of control, inspection and enforcement should be established, that includes the fight against IUU fishing activities.

The use of modern and effective technologies should be promoted in the framework of the Union system for control, inspection, and enforcement. Member States and the Commission should have the possibility to conduct pilot projects on new control technologies and data management systems.

In order to ensure that the conditions in different Member States for the application of control and enforcement rules are comparable, cooperation between Member States on identifying effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties should be encouraged.

In order to ensure the involvement of operators in the Union data collection and in the Union system for control, inspection, and enforcement, Member States should be able to require their operators to contribute proportionally to the corresponding operational costs.

The objectives of the CFP cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States alone, given the problems encountered in the development of the fishing industry and its management, and the limits on the financial resources of the Member States. Therefore, to contribute to the achievement of those objectives, multiannual Union financial assistance should be granted that is focused on the priorities of the CFP and tailored to the specific features of the fishing industry in individual Member States.

Union financial assistance should be made conditional upon compliance by Member States and operators, including vessel owners, with the rules of the CFP. Subject to specific rules to be adopted, Union financial assistance should be interrupted, suspended or corrected in cases of non-compliance with a specific obligation of the CFP by a Member State or a serious infringement of those rules by an operator.

Dialogue with stakeholders has proven to be essential for achieving the objectives of the CFP. Taking into account the diverse conditions throughout Union waters and the increased regionalisation of the CFP, Advisory Councils should enable the CFP to benefit from the knowledge and experience of all stakeholders.

In view of the special characteristics of the outermost regions, of aquaculture, of markets and of the Black Sea, it is appropriate to establish a new Advisory Council for each of them.

The power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty should be delegated to the Commission in respect of the adoption of conservation measures accompanying certain environmental obligations by Member States, the adapting of the landing obligation for the purpose of complying with the Union's international obligations, the extension of the landing obligation to other species using the regionalisation process, the adoption of specific discard plans using the regionalisation process, the adoption of de minimis exemptions to the landing obligation if no other implementation measure for that obligation has been adopted, and the establishment of detailed rules for the functioning of Advisory Councils. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level. The Commission, when preparing and drawing up delegated acts, should ensure a simultaneous, timely and appropriate transmission of relevant documents to the European Parliament and to the Council.

In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of the provisions of this Regulation in respect of temporary measures to alleviate a serious threat to the conservation of marine biological resources, of the entry-exit scheme in fleet management and of the recording, format and transmission of data for the Union fishing fleet register, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council16.

In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve its objectives.

Council Decision 2004/585/EC17 should be repealed upon entry in force of the corresponding rules pursuant to this Regulation.

By reason of the number and importance of the amendments to be made, Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 should be repealed,