By Council Regulation (EEC) No 3179/781, the Union concluded the Convention on Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries2 (‘NAFO Convention’), which established the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO). Pursuant to Council Decision 2010/717/EU3, the Union concluded the fourth amendment to the NAFO Convention that established the Commission of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation4 (‘NAFO Commission’).

The NAFO Commission is responsible for the adoption of measures designed to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the fishery resources in the NAFO Convention area and to safeguard the marine eco-systems in which these resources occur. Such measures may become binding upon the Union.

Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council5 provides that the Union is to ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term and are managed in a way that is consistent with the objectives of achieving economic, social and employment benefits, and of contributing to the availability of food supplies. It also provides that the Union is to apply the precautionary approach to fisheries management, and is to aim to ensure that exploitation of marine biological resources restores and maintains population of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield. It further provides that the Union is to take management and conservation measures based on the best available scientific advice, to support the development of scientific knowledge and advice, to gradually eliminate discards and to promote fishing methods that contribute to more selective fishing and the avoidance and reduction, as far as possible, of unwanted catches, to fishing with low impact on marine ecosystem and fishery resources. Furthermore, Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 specifically provides that those objectives and principles are to be applied by the Union in the conduct of its external fisheries relations.

As stated in the Joint communication by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission ‘International ocean governance: an agenda for the future of oceans’, and the Council conclusions on that Joint communication, the promotion of measures to support and enhance the effectiveness of regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) and, where relevant, improve their governance is central to the Union's action in these fora.

The Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, to the Council, to the European Economic and Social Committee and to the Committee of the Regions ‘European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy’, refers to specific measures to reduce plastics and marine pollution as well as the loss or abandonment at sea of fishing gear.

It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union's behalf in the meetings of the NAFO Commission for the period 2019-2023, and to repeal the Council Decision of 26 May 2014 on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the Union, in the NAFO, as the NAFO conservation and enforcement measures will be binding on the Union and capable of decisively influencing the content of Union law, namely, Council Regulations (EC) No 1005/20086 and (EC) No 1224/20097, and Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 of the European Parliament and of the Council8.

In view of the evolving nature of fishery resources in the NAFO Convention area and the consequent need for the position of the Union to take account of new developments, including new scientific and other relevant information presented before or during the meetings of the NAFO Commission, procedures should be established, in line with the principle of sincere cooperation among the Union institutions enshrined in Article 13(2) of the Treaty on European Union, for the year-to-year specification of the Union's position for the period 2019-2023,