By Council Decision 81/608/EEC1, the Union concluded the Convention on Future Multilateral Cooperation in the North-East Atlantic Fisheries2, which established the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC), (‘NEAFC Convention’). The 2004 and 2006 amendments to the NEAFC Convention were approved by Council Decision 2009/550/EC3. The amendments formally entered into force on 29 October 2013 although, in accordance with the London Declaration of 18 November 2005, it was agreed to implement the amendments on a provisional basis from their adoption, pending their entry into force.

The NEAFC is responsible for the adoption of measures designed to ensure the long-term conservation and optimum utilisation of the fishery resources in the NEAFC Convention area (‘the Convention area’). Such measures may become binding upon the Union.

Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council4 provides that the Union is to ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term and are managed in a way that is consistent with the objectives of achieving economic, social and employment benefits, and of contributing to the availability of food supplies. It also provides that the Union is to apply the precautionary approach to fisheries management, and is to aim to ensure that exploitation of marine biological resources restores and maintains population of harvested species above levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield. It further provides that the Union is to take management and conservation measures based on the best available scientific advice, to support the development of scientific knowledge and advice, to gradually eliminate discards and to promote fishing methods that contribute to more selective fishing and the avoidance and reduction, as far as possible, of unwanted catches, to fishing with low impact on marine ecosystem and fishery resources. Furthermore, Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 specifically provides that those objectives and principles are to be applied by the Union in the conduct of its external fisheries relations.

As stated in the Joint communication by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission ‘International ocean governance: an agenda for the future of oceans’, and the Council conclusions on that Joint communication, the promotion of measures to support and enhance the effectiveness of regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) and, where relevant, improve their governance is central to the Union's action in these fora.

The Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, to the Council, to the European Economic and Social Committee and to the Committee of the Regions ‘European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy’, refers to specific measures to reduce plastics and marine pollution as well as the loss or abandonment at sea of fishing gear.

It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union's behalf in the meetings of the NEAFC for the period 2019-2023, and to repeal the Council Decision of 26 May 2014 on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the Union, in the NEAFC as the NEAFC conservation and enforcement measures will be binding on the Union and capable of decisively influencing the content of Union law, namely, Council Regulations (EC) No 1005/20085 and (EC) No 1224/20096, and Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 of the European Parliament and of the Council7.

Currently, the position to be taken on the Union's behalf in the meetings of the NEAFC is established by the Decision of 26 May 2014 on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the Union, in the NEAFC. It is appropriate to repeal that Decision and to replace it by a new Decision which would cover the period 2019-2023.

In view of the evolving nature of fishery resources in the Convention area and the consequent need for the position of the Union to take account of new developments, including new scientific and other relevant information presented before or during the meetings of the NEAFC, procedures should be established, in line with the principle of sincere cooperation among the Union institutions enshrined in Article 13(2) of the Treaty on European Union, for the year-to-year specification of the Union's position for the period 2019-2023,