Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Article 9.3 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1967/2006 concerning management measures for the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources in the Mediterranean Sea

This report is submitted in accordance with the provisions of Article 9.3 (3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1967/2006 of 21 December 2006 concerning management measures for the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources in the Mediterranean Sea.

Article 9.3 lays down the minimum mesh size to be used at the cod-end of towed nets (i.e. trawl nets; boat seines and shore seines). The main objective of setting a minimum mesh size for towed gears was to avoid further increase in mortality rates of juveniles. Article 9.3 stipulates in its sub-paragraph (3) that the Commission will submit by 30 June 2012 a report on the implementation of this provision to the European Parliament and the Council.

Article 9.3 (3) specifies that the Commission should take into account information delivered by Member States before 31 December 2011. As no information was received by the Commission by that date, at the beginning of 2012 the Commission services asked all Mediterranean Member States to provide data on the degree of implementation of the minimum mesh size requirements, the cost incurred by operators and the possible impact on selectivity. Replies were received from Cyprus, France, Spain, Italy, Malta and Slovenia, and were used in the report. The Commission also used the information collected and observations made during verification missions carried out by Commission officials from July 2010 to April 2012.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)370: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:370:FIN

---