38 Fishing opportunities in 2010-11
| (a)
(31706)
11060/10
COM(10) 306
(b)
(31782)
11951/10
COM(10) 374
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Draft Council Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No. 53/2010 as regards certain fishing opportunities for cod redfish and bluefin tuna and excluding certain groups of vessels from the fishing effort laid down in Chapter III of Regulation (EC) No. 1342/2008
Draft Council Regulation establishing the fishing opportunities in the Bay of Biscay for the 2010-11 fishing season and amending Regulation (EU) No. 53/2010
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| Legal base | See para 38.5 below
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| Document originated | (a) 11 June 2010
(b) 7 July 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | (a) 16 June 2010
(b) 12 July 2010
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| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Basis of consideration | (a) EM of 30 June 2010
(b) EM of 16 July 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | 26 July 2010
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| Committee's assessment | (Both)Legally important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared, but further information requested
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Background
38.1 Each year, the EU fixes the fishing opportunities for its
vessels, and those for 2010 were set out in Regulation (EU) No.
53/2010. However, in-year adjustments are frequently made in order
to reflect changes in circumstances, including the updating of
relevant scientific advice and subsequent decisions taken by regional
fisheries organisations of which the EU is a member.
The current proposals
38.2 The Commission has accordingly put forward these two proposals,
which would make certain changes to the fishing arrangements applying
in 2010. Document (a) would amend Regulation (EU) No. 53/2010
to reflect changes agreed internationally by the North Atlantic
Fisheries Organisation (which regulates catches in the North West
Atlantic) and by the International Commission for the Conservation
of Atlantic Tunas. Also, Regulation (EC) No 1342/2008 enables
the Council to grant requests from Member States for certain vessels
to be exempted from the effort limitation provisions laid down
under long-term recovery plans, and this proposal would enable
such requests from Germany, Ireland and France to be approved.
Document (b) would amend the total allowable catches (TAC) set
for anchovy in the Bay of Biscay in the light of newly available
scientific advice.
The Government's view
38.3 The UK has no direct interest in the Bay of Biscay fishery,
and in a Explanatory Memorandum of 30 June 2010, the Parliamentary
Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries at the Department
for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Mr Richard Benyon)
said that the UK supports the proposed changes, and that the Government
will be putting in on behalf of UK vessels a similar request for
an exemption from the effort limitation provisions.
Conclusion
38.4 These proposed changes have a minimal impact on the UK,
and, since they therefore raise no important policy issues, we
are clearing these documents. However, they do raise a legal issue
which concerns us, and on which we would welcome the Government's
views.
38.5 In each case, the Explanatory Memorandum provided gives
Article 43(3)TFEU as the legal base, and says that the proposal
is subject to special legislative procedure. In a letter from
the previous Minister for Europe on 11 January 2010[154]
on the definition of "legislative act" under the EU
Treaties, we were told that an act could only be adopted by the
ordinary or a special legislative procedure, and therefore be
considered a legislative act, if the relevant legal base "explicitly"
referred to the legislative procedure. Yet Article 43(3) is silent
on this. We would be grateful, therefore, if the Minister would
confirm whether the Government has departed from the view of the
previous Government when he states in his Explanatory Memorandum
that these Regulations are adopted by special legislative procedure.
The question of legislative procedure is significant because it
determines the application of the Protocols on national parliaments
and on the principle of subsidiarity, and in particular whether
national parliaments have an eight week period in which to consider
a proposal.
38.6 We would also be grateful if the Minister
could tell us whether, prior to the Lisbon Treaty coming into
force, the Council considered that it was acting "in its
legislative capacity" in accordance with Article 7 of the
Council's 2004 rules of procedure when adopting these types of
Regulation on fishing opportunities. If it did (which would seem
likely) national parliaments would have had a Treaty-enshrined
right to six weeks for scrutiny before adoption in the Council
under Article I(3) of the pre-Lisbon Protocol on national parliaments,
but would now be denied even this if the current proposals were
deemed not to be legislative acts.
154 (http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/ministerial-correspondence-2009-10.pdf). Back
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