European Marine and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)

This consultation sought views on proposals on the European Commission’s proposals for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

The European Commission published their proposals for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) that will replace the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) from 1 January 2014 until 31 December 2020.

The EMFF is structured around four pillars:

• Smart, Green Fisheries; intended to help address discards, support fisheries which are less damaging to the marine environment, support innovation value added, and build resilience to external factors;
• Smart, Green Aquaculture; which aims to help aquaculture businesses achieve economic viability and competitiveness;
• Sustainable Development of Fisheries Areas; targeted at reversing the decline of many coastal and inland communities dependent on fishing; and
• Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP); which includes a number of cross cutting measures including maritime surveillance, data sharing, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). The funding under this pillar will be held by the Commission and centrally distributed.

The proposals for the EMFF aim at achieving the objectives of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy and of the IMP (the major difference between the EMFF and EFF is the inclusion of the IMP).

In addition to this process, we will also meet directly with groups of stakeholders to gather their views on the Commission proposals, and will continue to do this as the negotiations develop.

• COM(2011) 804 -  Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund [repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1198/2006 and Council Regulation(EC) No 861/2006 and Council Regulation No XXX/2011 on integrated maritime policy
• SEC(2011) 1416 - Impact Assessment
• SEC(2011) 1417 - Executive summary of the Impact Assessment
• Opinion of the Impact Assessment Board