Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1342/2008 of 18 December 2008 establishing a long-term plan for cod stocks and the fisheries exploiting those stocks

The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) makes a distinction between powers delegated to the Commission to adopt non-legislative acts of general application to supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of a legislative act, as laid down in Article 290(1) TFEU (delegated acts), and powers conferred on the Commission to adopt uniform conditions for implementing legally binding Union acts, as laid down in Article 291(2) TFEU (implementing acts).

The objective of this proposal is to bring Regulation (EC) No 1342/2008 of 18 December 2008 establishing a long-term plan for cod stocks and the fisheries exploiting those stocks (‘the cod plan’) into line with the new rules of the TFEU. The powers currently conferred on the Commission by that Regulation have been re-classified into measures of a delegated nature and measures of an implementing nature.

The core objective of the plan is to ensure the sustainable exploitation of cod stocks in the geographical areas of the Kattegat, the North Sea, the West of Scotland and the Irish Sea on the basis of maximum sustainable yield (Article 5(1)). To attain that objective, the plan lays down rules for establishing the annual fishing opportunities for this stock in terms of total allowable catch and maximum allowable fishing effort.

The proposed amendments are changes that will enable the plan to work efficiently within the new decision-making framework set up by the Lisbon Treaty.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)021: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:021:FIN

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