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OPINION (COM(2025)0545 – C100166/2025 – 2025/0545(COD))

On the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a budget expenditure tracking and performance framework and other horizontal rules for the Union programmes and activities

PECH-AD-787654

Committee on Fisheries · Rapporteur: Isabelle Le Callennec

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The Committee on Fisheries gives its opinion on the proposed regulation setting up a budget expenditure tracking and performance framework for Union programmes. It proposes amendments to simplify access to funding for fisheries and aquaculture operators. The opinion asks to remove delegated acts and guidance, align the annex with the regulation, merge climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience into one climate action column, and exempt fisheries from the 'do no significant harm' principle. It also asks to apply the gender equality requirement in a way suited to each sector, and to add competitiveness monitoring as a horizontal principle across all multiannual financial framework funds. The amendments add a definition of 'fishing activity', require the framework to consider fisheries specificities, and set a climate and environment spending target of at least 35% of the budget over 2028-2034, excluding defence and security spending. They also require Member States to provide 'do no significant harm' and gender equality assessments at measure level, and set rules for the Single Gateway, evaluations and reporting.

Committee position. The Committee on Fisheries proposes amendments to the proposed regulation to simplify access to funding for fisheries and aquaculture, exempt fisheries from the 'do no significant harm' principle, tailor gender equality requirements, and add competitiveness monitoring as a horizontal principle.

Key points

  1. The regulation should simplify access to funding for end beneficiaries and avoid adding administrative burdens for fisheries operators, including on eligibility criteria.
  2. All references to delegated acts or guidance should be removed, and consensus between Parliament and the Council sought for any changes.
  3. The annex should be aligned with the regulation, and climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience merged under a single climate action column.
  4. Fisheries should be exempt from the 'do no significant harm' principle, as the common fisheries policy already provides a comprehensive framework.
  5. The gender equality requirement should be applied in a commensurate manner tailored to each sector, including fisheries, and not exclude projects meeting other criteria.
  6. Competitiveness monitoring should be incorporated as a horizontal principle across all multiannual financial framework funds, with food sovereignty treated as a strategic priority.
  7. A definition of 'fishing activity' is added, and the framework must take into account the specificities of fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic food processing.
  8. The contribution to climate change mitigation, adaptation, resilience and environment, including biodiversity, is monitored, with an overall spending target of at least 35% of the total budget over 2028-2034.
  9. Defence and security spending is excluded from the basis for calculating the climate and environment spending target.
  10. Fishing activities complying with the Common Fisheries Policy are presumed to comply with the 'do no significant harm' principle without additional individual assessment.
  11. Member States or third countries must provide a 'do no significant harm' assessment for each measure at the level of each intervention field, and a gender equality assessment with a gender score.
  12. The Single Gateway must be publicly available and interoperable with national systems, and for fisheries and aquaculture natural persons only aggregated data at vessel or unit level is published.

Who is affected

  • Fisheries and aquaculture operators, who would face no additional administrative burdens and could be exempt from the 'do no significant harm' principle.
  • Member States and third countries, which must provide 'do no significant harm' and gender equality assessments for each measure in their plans.
  • Small-scale fishing and aquaculture operators, for whom Member States put in place simplified reporting arrangements.
  • Regional and local authorities and individual beneficiaries, who shall not be penalised for failure to reach the climate and environment spending target outside their competence.
  • Remote, rural, coastal, island, outermost, mountain and sparsely populated regions, whose specific constraints must be integrated into performance indicators and tracking.

Figures and deadlines

  • At least 35% of the total amount of the budget on climate action and environmental objectives over the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework.
  • EUR 500 000, the threshold below which support through financial instruments or budgetary guarantees is excepted from publication on the Single Gateway.
  • EUR 100 000, the total cost of tangible assets above which durable plaques or billboards must be displayed.
  • Four years after the start of implementation, the deadline for the Commission to publish an implementation report for each programme or activity.
  • Two years after the end of the programming period, the deadline for Member States to carry out evaluations of measures in shared management.
  • Three years after the start of implementation, the deadline for Member States to carry out at least one interim evaluation.
  • One month, extendable by one month, the period for Parliament or Council to object to a delegated act under Article 12.

Legal basis: Article 322(1), point (a), and Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union