EU/Mauritania Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement and Implementing Protocol

PURPOSE: to conclude the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and the Implementing protocol thereto.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act.

BACKGROUND: the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and its implementing protocol having been signed, the Partnership Agreement and the protocol should be approved.

CONTENT: the Council draft concerns the approval, on behalf of the Union, of the Partnership Agreement on sustainable fisheries between the European Union and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and its implementing Protocol.

The objectives of the Partnership Agreement and the Protocol are to enable EU vessels to carry out their fishing activities in Mauritanian waters and to enable the EU and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania to work closely together in order to continue to promote the development of a sustainable fisheries policy and the responsible exploitation of fisheries resources in Mauritania's fishing zone and in the Atlantic Ocean, in accordance with the objective of conservation of marine biological resources recognised in Union law. This cooperation also helps to establish decent working conditions in the fisheries sector.

The Partnership Agreement establishes a Joint Committee responsible for monitoring the application of the Partnership Agreement and the Protocol. The Joint Committee may approve certain amendments to the Protocol. The Commission will be authorised, subject to specific substantive and procedural conditions, to approve these amendments on behalf of the Union under a simplified procedure.

The Union's position on the proposed amendments to the Protocol will have to be established by the Council. The proposed amendments will have to be approved unless a blocking minority of Member States objects to them.

The Partnership Agreement and the Protocol should enter into force as soon as possible, given the economic importance of the Union's fishing activities in Mauritania's fishing zone and the need to avoid or reduce as far as possible the period during which these activities are interrupted.