What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

– increasing the fishing capacity limits in terms of gross tonnage and engine power, without increasing the ability of vessels to catch more fish;

39. Calls on the Commission and Member States to make it easier for industry professionals to access EMFAF funds;

40. Further calls on the Commission and Member States to accelerate research and development, to adapt the State Aid policy and in synergy with the EMFAF to provide adequate and sufficient funding, so that the sector is able to achieve the decarbonisation of the EU fleet within the tight timeframe required by the European Green Deal and other related obligations;

41. Also calls on the Commission to review the EMFAF, in line with the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, adopted at its 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) on 17 June 2022, with a view to reaching carbon neutrality; calls for financing for new vessels to be approved, within the parameters laid down in international fisheries agreements;

42. Further calls for an economic transition assistance to be developed to advance decarbonisation, covering all fleet segments; insists that such assistance should also be used to replace existing vessels, as the fleet is very old, with more efficient, safer, technologically innovative and spacious vessels that contribute to making the sector more attractive and to promoting generational renewal;

43. Calls on the Commission and Member States to complement EMFAF funding, for example through the Just Transition Fund, RePower EU and Horizon Europe to facilitate decarbonisation and to finance research, in order to facilitate a just ecological transition that leaves no one behind;

44. Urges the Commission and Member States to work together to support research and allowing innovative gear and techniques for selective fishing that contribute to substantially reducing CO2 emissions and fuel use;

Regional Multiannual plans

45. Recognises the essential role of multiannual plans (MAPs) as main frameworks for long-term regional fisheries management, based on the best available scientific, technical and economic advice, but regrets that they have not reached their full potential;

46. Calls on the Commission to assess how effectively the existing MAPs are being implemented in order to ensure that they contribute to the CFP objectives; where necessary, these plans should be updated and improved, so that they take into account socio-economic considerations and changing conditions;

47. Calls on the Commission to explore, in coordination with other partners in the area - namely non-EU countries and relevant Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) - whether MAPs, similar to those in place in other sea basins, could be proposed for the EU’s remaining waters, notably in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and how they can complement and work together with already existing management tools in these sea basins;

48. Underlines the need to ensure synergies between regional multiannual plans and the specific maritime policies for each basin;

49. Believes that it is imperative that all local and regional authorities competent for fisheries management, as well as the Advisory Councils (ACs), which have a fundamental role in this regard, are fully involved in the definition, development and implementation of MAPs in line with the CFP;

50. Stresses that fisheries is the sector most dependent on healthy, productive and resilient stocks and marine ecosystems and that these ecosystems are affected also by the many other uses of, and activities taking place in the marine environment, such as maritime transport and tourism, urban and coastal development, the exploitation of raw materials and energy sources, including sea-floor mining, as well as being affected by marine pollution and climate change; consequently, stresses the need to improve the implementation of the ecosystem-based approach at regional, national and European level, to which MAPs and other management tools have a crucial role to play;

51. Stresses the need for consistent fisheries management measures concerning stocks straddling over regions covered by several MAPs, as well as for regions not covered by MAPs;

Governance

52. Strongly recommends, given the strategic importance of fisheries and aquaculture as a source of healthy, protein-rich and high-quality food, that this policy be given the additional strategic recognition it deserves within the Commission and that the Commission services responsible be staffed with an adequate number of experts in fisheries and aquaculture;

53. Requests that, in future compositions of the College of Commissioners, there should be a Commissioner dedicated exclusively to fisheries, aquaculture and maritime affairs;

54. Stresses the importance of the Commission’s including sufficiently detailed information it its annual reports as referred to in Article 50 of the CFP, so as to allow the implementation of the CFP by the Commission to be monitored and assessed effectively; calls in addition on the Commission, when reviewing the CFP, to amend Article 49 in order to set a deadline for a report to be submitted 10 years after the review and every five years thereafter to the European Parliament and to the Council;

55. Calls on the Commission to better support the Member States in implementing and ensuring respect of and compliance with the objectives of the CFP; underlines that it is essential for the Commission and the Member States to be transparent in their management of fishery resources; stresses that transparent management is vital in ensuring a high level of trust among EU citizens and maintaining the good reputation of the EU fisheries sector;

56. Proposes to the Commission and the Council that the European Parliament be given observer status, ensuring full political representation, at the annual negotiations on fishing opportunities;

Regionalisation and stakeholders’ involvement

57. Stresses the importance of strengthening regionalisation in the CFP, allowing regions and local authorities to be more involved in the drafting, development and evaluation of the national operational programmes for fisheries and in fisheries management more generally, while also making full use of the existing possibilities in the CFP;

58. Highlights the importance of taking into account regional specificities, while applying a harmonised approach to fisheries management across the EU; encourages Member States to increase their cooperation within regional groups, together with the relevant stakeholders, ACs and local and regional authorities in accordance with Article 18 of the CFP Basic Regulation in order to design regional conservation measures through joint recommendations that are better tailored to the specific characteristics of each particular maritime basin;

59. Stresses the fundamental role of ACs in reinforcing stakeholders’ cooperation and in ensuring their adequate and fair participation in the EU decision-making process;

60. Further emphasises that the ACs are essential to provide experience and knowledge to the European Commission and to the Member States, as well as to submitting recommendations on matters relating to the management of fisheries and the socio-economic and conservation aspects of fisheries and aquaculture and explain the problems of the sector and of other stakeholders, thus supporting and improving legislation;

61. Underlines that ACs also play a key role in the context of regionalisation;

62. Calls on the Commission to ensure that regional stakeholders and ACs play a greater role in the negotiations and consultations with third countries, especially the United Kingdom and Norway; points out that the Commission is responsible for organising the negotiations with third countries in such a way as to allow for direct interactions and exchanges between stakeholders on both sides;

63. Supports the composition of the ACs, with a majority representation of socio-economic operators as compared to other interest groups;

64. Highlights the importance of stakeholders’ actively participating in ACs, in a good working atmosphere based on respect, inclusion of all opinions by the different stakeholder groups, impartial secretariats, rotating chairpersons and external, regular and independent performance reviews;

65. Highlights the importance of involving the ACs with the European Parliament’s work, and thus recommends holding regular exchanges between representatives of the ACs and Parliament’s relevant Committees;

66. Deplores the insufficient monitoring of and transparency on how the ACs’ advice is taken into account in decision-making; calls on the Commission to draw up a procedure to give ACs a better understanding of the results of their recommendations, such as considering an annual report, as well as including explanations in specific proposals from the Commission, such as in recitals of the relevant legislative acts, on how ACs’ recommendations have been taken into account;

67. Calls on the Commission to systematically and actively participate in the ACs’ meetings and to better communicate on the value of their advice, as well as for Member States to provide appropriate support for the functioning of ACs;

68. Considers that co-management is a participatory and co-responsibility model, based on a bottom up approach, which is transparent, proactive and democratic, and which helps to generate greater knowledge sharing for fisheries management, within a culture of responsibility, establishing a network of trust and contributing to reducing conflict and overcoming hurdles to implement innovations and necessary measures in fisheries management, as well as in the creation, implementation and management of Marine Protected Areas, where it has proven to be highly successful;

69. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal announced in its Communication on the CFP today and tomorrow to conduct, between spring 2023 and summer 2024, an EU-wide participatory foresight project on ‘Fisheries of the Future’ based on interviews on the ground;

Decisions based on science and impact assessments

70. Calls on the Commission to base all its political and legislative initiatives (including implementing acts that set restrictions on fisheries) on the best available scientific, technical and economic advice (including fishers’ empirical knowledge) and consultation and participation of the fisheries sector and other relevant stakeholders and on prior socio-economic impact assessments using innovative tools such as those developed in the CABFishman project, which analyses the impacts of fisheries on coastal areas;

71. Calls on the Member States to increase their human and material resources and to equip them for suitable scientific campaigns and projects so that they have sufficient knowledge of the species targeted by conservation policies;

72. Calls for the EMFAF to provide effective support to more selective and less impacting fishing techniques for EU fishing fleets, and in particular to support fishers impacted the most by restrictions, based on scientific impact assessments on the use of specific fishing techniques; encourages the Commission to promote the scientific concept of ‘pêchécologie’ (‘fishecology’) which aims to reconcile conservation measures and sustainable use of the sea’s living resources;

73. Considers that the ACs should be given the possibility of contributing to the Commission’s requests for advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) in order to foster closer collaboration between scientists and stakeholders;

74. Calls on the Commission to systematically inform the European Parliament about these requests, in particular the way in which they contribute to the objectives of the CFP;

The integration of fisheries into a wider policy context

75. Stresses the need to ensure that fisheries and aquaculture are given a fair place in comparison with other sectors in policy design and in spatial planning; recalls the need to establish a better balance between the various economic activities pertaining to the Blue Economy in order to reduce and avoid conflicts and foster synergies, especially with renewable marine energy infrastructures, through the Directive on maritime spatial planning; points out that this requires broad and inclusive stakeholder participation;

76. Recalls that environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the CFP with a view to promoting sustainable development, in line with the TFEU;

77. Stresses that it is impossible to manage fisheries as a standalone policy, and calls on the Commission to implement the CFP in synergy with all EU public policies affecting the hydrosphere and taking into account all of the challenges associated with Europe’s maritime areas;

78. Underlines that, notably, the CFP must be consistent with EU environmental legislation, in particular with the objective of achieving a good environmental status as set out in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and be implemented respecting the three pillars of sustainability equally;

79. Stresses the need for other EU policies and strategies to sufficiently take into account and be coherent with the CFP;

80. Notes the need for a holistic approach, ensuring proper support to the fisheries and aquaculture sector, when implementing measures designed to improve conditions for the marine environment;

81. Recalls that Article 13 TFEU provides that, in formulating and implementing the EU’s fisheries policy, the EU and its Member States should pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals, while respecting the legislative or administrative provisions and customs of the Member States.

83. Considers that the marketing of purely plant-based products under the trade name ‘fish’ or fish species may lead to some confusion for consumers at the time of purchase; asserts that the trade name ‘fish’ or fish species should be reserved in the internal market for fishery or aquaculture products of animal origin;

84. Calls on the Commission to review, update and give regulatory content to the concept of an ‘area heavily dependent on fisheries’, so that this recognition provides differentiated treatment aimed at preserving fisheries in these areas through a preferential distribution of fishing quotas; supports the view that the defining elements of an updated concept of ‘area heavily dependent on fisheries’ should include the production of quality animal protein, the contribution to food security or ensuring high added value to catches and other sea products, as well as the social importance of the activity;

Small-scale fisheries

85. Notes that some aspects of the CFP might not cater adequately for the small-scale fishing sector and that its vital socio-economic role in many coastal communities and its strategic role in the availability of food supply must be secured;

86. Takes the view that the CFP should sufficiently take into account the diverse nature, specific characteristics and problems of the small-scale fishing and shellfish sectors;

87. Draws attention to the need for greater involvement and participation of small-scale fishing professionals in the management, definition and implementation of fisheries policies, as well as in ACs;

88. Takes the view that a review of the CFP should include a common, broad and appropriate definition of small-scale, artisanal and coastal fisheries; stresses that this definition should be pragmatic, measureable and clear; also emphasises that this definition should derive from an appropriate assessment that takes into account the specific characteristics and criteria of the small-scale segment, rather than focus solely on vessel length, in order to arrive at a definition of small-scale fisheries that better reflects the reality of the segment;

89. Calls for the Commission, together with the ACs, to propose a harmonised definition to be included in a review of the CFP Basic Regulation in order for it to cover all EU fisheries legislation, where appropriate; considers that any of the changes outlined above should not impact the implementation of the EMFAF during the current budgetary period;