Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2063 of 25 August 2021 amending and correcting Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015 specifying details of the implementation of the landing obligation for certain fisheries in Western Waters for the period 2021-2023

• Published date: 26 November 2021
• Date of Signature: 25 August 2021
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 421, 26 November 2021

26.11.2021 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 421/6

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COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2021/2063

of 25 August 2021

amending and correcting Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015 specifying details of the implementation of the landing obligation for certain fisheries in Western Waters for the period 2021-2023

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/472 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 establishing a multiannual plan for stocks fished in the Western Waters and adjacent waters, and for fisheries exploiting those stocks, amending Regulations (EU) 2016/1139 and (EU) 2018/973, and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 811/2004, (EC) No 2166/2005, (EC) No 388/2006, (EC) No 509/2007 and (EC) No 1300/2008 (1), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015 (2) provides details on how to implement the landing obligation for certain demersal fisheries in the Western Waters for the period 2021-2023, following two joint recommendations submitted respectively by Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal (‘South-Western Waters Member States’) and Belgium, Ireland, Spain, France and the Netherlands (‘North-Western Waters Member States’).

(2) Under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015, certain exemptions to the landing obligation are provisionally applicable until 31 December 2021. In these cases, Member States having a direct management interest should submit, as soon as possible and not later than 1 May 2021, additional scientific evidence supporting the exemption. The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (‘STECF’) should assess the provided information by 31 July 2021.

(3) The North-Western Waters Member States, after consulting the North-Western Waters Advisory Council and the Pelagic Advisory Council, submitted a joint recommendation to the Commission on 30 April 2021, requesting an amendment to the discard plan for certain fisheries in the North-Western Waters.

(4) The South-Western Waters Member States, after consulting the South-Western Waters Advisory Council and the Pelagic Advisory Council, submitted a joint recommendation to the Commission on 30 April 2021, requesting an amendment to the discard plan for certain fisheries in the South-Western Waters.

(5) The STECF (3) reviewed these joint recommendations in May 2021. The Commission presented the draft delegated acts to an expert group consisting of representatives of the Member States on 16 July 2021 in a meeting attended by the European Parliament as an observer.

(6) Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015 laid down the scope of the exemptions applicable in the North-Western Waters (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (‘ICES’) subareas 5 (excluding division 5a and only Union waters of division 5b), 6 and 7). That same regulation laid down the scope of the exemptions applicable in the South-Western Waters (ICES subareas 8, 9 and 10 (waters around Azores), and in the Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (‘CECAF’) zones 34.1.1, 34.1.2 and 34.2.0 (waters around Madeira and the Canary Islands). For legal clarity, the application of these measures should explicitly refer to Union waters of these areas. Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015 should therefore be amended.

(7) The North-Western Waters Member States requested a new survival exemption for plaice caught with seines (SSC) in ICES divisions 7b to 7k. The North-Western Waters Member States provided new scientific evidence to demonstrate high discard survival rates for plaice in that fishery. That evidence was submitted to the STECF, which concluded (4) that the data on survival rates are reliable and give robust survival estimates for that fishery. The exemption should therefore be included in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015.

(8) Article 10(4), point (b), of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2015 granted a high survivability exemption for cuckoo ray caught with bottom trawls in ICES subarea 8 until 31 December 2021. The South-Western Waters Member States requested that the exemption be extended until 31 December 2023. The STECF reviewed the scientific

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