General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean GFCM: amending agreement, autonomous budget

LEGISLATIVE ACT : Council Decision 2004/815/EC amending the declaration by the European Community on the exercise of competence and voting rights submitted to the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.

CONTENT : GFCM adopted, in 1997, amendments to the text of the agreement establishing an autonomous budget. The Community accepted the amendment of the Agreement establishing the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean with a view to establishing an autonomous budget for that organization. The amendments relative to the autonomous budget entered into force on 29 April 2004. The implementation of an autonomous budget for GFCM implies that the Community will provide a financial contribution to that budget; the volume of this contribution makes it necessary to adapt the declaration of competence and voting rights deposited at the time of the accession of the Community to GFCM.

This Decision provides that the European Community will amend its single declaration of competence and voting rights submitted at the time of acceding to the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. This is replaced by the declaration by the European Community on the exercise of competence and voting rights according to Article II (6) of the GFCM Agreement contained in the Annex. The declaration specifies the areas of the Community's exclusive competence, of the Member states' competence and the areas of shared competence. For agenda items dealing with budgetary issues, the competence is shared between the European Community and its Member States. The European Community has voting rights.