THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 of 20 November 2009 establishing a Union control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the common fisheries policy, amending Regulations (EC) No 847/96, (EC) No 2371/2002, (EC) No 811/2004, (EC) No 768/2005, (EC) No 2115/2005, (EC) No 2166/2005, (EC) No 388/2006, (EC) No 509/2007, (EC) No 676/2007, (EC) No 1098/2007, (EC) No 1300/2008, (EC) No 1342/2008 and repealing Regulations (EEC) No 2847/93, (EC) No 1627/94 and (EC) No 1966/2006, and in particular Article 105(1), (2), (3) and (5) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Fishing quotas for the year 2018 have been established by:
Council Regulation (EU) 2016/2285,
Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1970,
Council Regulation (EU) 2017/2360, and
Council Regulation (EU) 2018/120.
(2)
Fishing quotas for the year 2019 have been established by:
Council Regulations (EU) 2018/1628,
Council Regulation (EU) 2018/2025,
Council Regulation (EU) 2018/2058, and
Council Regulation (EU) 2019/124.
(3)
Pursuant to Article 105(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, when the Commission has established that a Member State has exceeded the fishing quotas which have been allocated to it, the Commission is to operate deductions from future fishing quotas of that Member State.
(4)
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1726 has established deductions from fishing quotas for certain stocks in 2019 on account of overfishing in the previous years.
(5)
However, for certain Member States, no deductions could be operated by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1726 from quotas allocated for the overfished stocks because such quotas are not available for those Member States in the year 2019.
(6)
Article 105(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 provides that, if it is not possible to operate deductions on the overfished stock in the year following the overfishing because the Member State concerned has no available quota, deductions may be operated on other stocks in the same geographical area or with the same commercial value, following consultations with the Member States concerned. According to Commission Communication No 2012/C 72/07 containing Guidelines for deduction of quotas under article 105(1), (2) and (5) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 such deductions should be preferably operated in the following year or years from quotas allocated for stocks fished by the same fleet as the fleet that overfished the quota.
(7)
The Member States concerned have been consulted with regard to the proposed deductions from quotas allocated for stocks other than those which have been overfished.
(8)
In certain cases, exchanges of fishing opportunities concluded in accordance with Article 16(8) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council enable deductions from the same stocks in the framework of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1726.
(9)
Moreover, certain deductions required by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1726 appear to be larger than the adapted quota available in the year 2019 and, as a consequence, cannot be entirely operated in that year. According to Communication No 2012/C 72/07, the remaining amounts should be deducted from the adapted quotas available in subsequent years until the full overfished amount is paid back.
(10)
Further updates or corrections may still occur following the detection, for the current or previous exercise, of errors, omissions or misreporting in the catch figures declared by the Member States pursuant to Article 33 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009.
(11)
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1726 should therefore be amended accordingly,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: