They include a report on a planned UN treaty on marine biodiversity conservation, a report on small-scale coastal fishing, and a report on the external dimension of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, thanked the parliamentarians for their initiatives and took the opportunity to respond to each report individually.

Regarding a new international agreement on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, Mr Vella highlighted the timeliness of the Parliament's report: a first round of negotiations was concluded at the UN last week. The new agreement will be important to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in line with international commitments and legal obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). At the same time, fishing is already managed well under the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and regional fisheries management organisations, and the Commissioner reassured MEPs that he did not intend to re-open the UN Fish Stocks Agreement.

On small-scale coastal fishing, the Commissioner stressed the importance of small-scale coastal fishing fleets both for the EU fishing fleet itself as well as for the coastal areas dependent on them. He reminded MEPs that Member States can grant fishing opportunities and channel public support to small-scale coastal fishing under preferential conditions. Most Member States already reserve a coastal zone for small-scale coastal fishing. However, industrial or large-scale fishing fleets are at least as fundamental for the viability and resilience of coastal communities: they represent most of the value of landings, gross value added and full time equivalent jobs. Consequently, there was a need to support all fishing fleets and avoid instituting an asymmetric fisheries policy, the Commission said.

Finally, Commissioner Vella stressed that the Parliament's report on the external dimension of the CFP was very much in line with the Commission's existing policy and the additional actions it plans to take to improve the management of the EU's Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements. These agreements with non-EU countries, as well as the EU's actions to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing worldwide, are governance benchmarks at international level. They contribute substantially to the EU's ocean governance objectives and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Commissioner Vella pointed to the Commission's proposal on the sustainable management of the EU's external fleet as one of the recent measures it has taken to improve transparency and reinforce ocean governance.