Authorising Poland to ratify the amendment to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea

The Committee on Fisheries adopted the report by Elżbieta RAFALSKA (ECR, PL) on the draft Council decision authorising the Republic of Poland to ratify, in the interest of the European Union, the amendment to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea.

As a reminder, Poland has been a contracting party to this organisation since 1994. After Poland joined the EU in 2004, the conservation and management of pollock resources in the Central Bering Sea was set to be managed by the EU by virtue of the Accession Act.

However, the Convention text currently only envisages the membership of States. It would therefore need to be amended to allow the EU to become a contracting party as a regional economic integration organisation. Poland proposed an amendment to the Convention in order to allow participation of regional economic integration organisations and to allow for the European Union to become party to the Convention.

The committee recommended the European Parliament to give its consent to the authorisation of Poland to ratify the amendment to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea.

The objectives of the Convention are to:

- establish an international regime for the conservation, management and optimum utilisation of pollock resources in the Convention area;

- restore and maintain pollock resources in the Bering Sea at levels that will provide for their maximum sustainable yield;

- cooperate in the gathering and analysis of factual information concerning pollock and other living marine resources in the Bering Sea; and

- provide, if the Parties agree, a forum in which to consider the development of conservation and management measures for marine living resources other than pollock in the Convention Area, as may be necessary in the future.