This Regulation sets out rules for issuing and managing fishing authorisations for:
Union fishing vessels conducting fishing operations in waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of a third country, under the auspices of an RFMO to which the Union is a contracting party, in or outside Union waters, or on the high seas; and
third-country fishing vessels conducting fishing operations in Union waters.
This Regulation shall apply without prejudice to the provisions:
in SFPAs and other fisheries agreements concluded between the Union and third countries;
adopted by RFMOs to which the Union is a contracting party;
in Union law implementing or transposing provisions referred to in points (a) and (b).
1.For the purpose of this Regulation, the definitions set out in Article 4 of the Basic Regulation and in points 1 to 4, 15, 16 and 22 of Article 2 of the IUU Regulation shall apply, save as otherwise provided for in this Regulation.
2.For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions also apply:
(a)‘support vessel’ means a vessel other than a craft carried on board that is not equipped with operational fishing gear designed to catch or attract fish and that facilitates, assists or prepares fishing operations;
(b)‘fishing authorisation’ means, in respect of a Union fishing vessel, an authorisation:
(b)within the meaning of point 10 of Article 4 of the Control Regulation,
issued by a third country entitling a Union fishing vessel to carry out specific fishing operations in the waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of that third country, during a specified period, in a given area or for a given fishery under specific conditions,
and, in respect of a third-country fishing vessel, an authorisation entitling it to carry out in Union waters specific fishing operations during a specified period, in a given area or for a given fishery under specific conditions;
(c)‘direct authorisation’ means a fishing authorisation issued by a third-country competent authority to a Union fishing vessel outside the framework of an SFPA or of an agreement on exchange of fishing opportunities and joint management of species of common interest;
(d)‘third-country waters’ means waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of a third country. The waters of a Member State that are not Union waters are considered as third-country waters for the purpose of this Regulation;
(e)‘observer programme’ means a scheme under the auspices of an RFMO, an SFPA, a third country or a Member State that provides observers on board fishing vessels including, where specifically provided for in the applicable observer scheme, to verify the vessel’s compliance with the rules adopted by that RFMO or that third country, or under that SFPA;
(f)‘chartering’ means an arrangement by which a fishing vessel flying the flag of a Member State is contracted for a defined period by an operator in either another Member State or a third country without a change of flag;
(g)‘fishing operation’ means all activities in connection with searching for fish, the shooting, towing and hauling of active gears, setting, soaking, removing or resetting of passive gears and the removal of any catch from the gear, keep nets, or from a transport cage to fattening and farming cages.