On the proposal for a regulation establishing the conditions for the implementation of the Union support to the Common Fisheries Policy, to the… European Ocean Pact and of the Union’s maritime and aquaculture policy as part of the National and Regional Partnership Fund set out in Regulation (EU) […] [NRP Fund] for the period from 2028 to 2034

for the Committee on Fisheries on the proposal for a regulation establishing the conditions for the implementation of the Union support to the Common Fisheries Policy, to the European Ocean Pact and of the Union’s maritime and aquaculture policy as part of the National and Regional Partnership Fund set out in Regulation (EU) […] [NRP Fund] for the period from 2028 to 2034

(COM(2025)0559 – C100171/2025 – 2025/0235(COD))

The Committee on Budgets has carried out a budgetary assessment of the proposal under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure and has reached the following conclusions:

The Committee on Budgets,

A.whereas the Commission proposed far-reaching changes in the legal architecture of the Common Fisheries Policies (CFP) for the next financial framework period; whereas the established dedicated Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) is to be discontinued, the related expenditure to be integrated in the NRP fund and the provisions for eligible interventions lumped up with the provisions for agricultural policy;

B.whereas, in line with Article 10(2)(a)(ii) of the proposed NRP Regulation, the ringfenced financial envelope for fisheries interventions is set at a level of EUR 2,00 billion, which might be supplemented by additional resources within the national plans; whereas this compares to an envelope of EUR 6,1 billion for the EMFAF under the current MFF 2021-2027;

C.whereas the relevant financial and budgetary provisions for the CFP are set in the NRP regulation, in particular the allocation, the governance, the types of intervention and specific rules applying to outermost regions;

D.whereas eligible measures for the CFP are to be diffused into various MFF headings, in particular Heading 1 for action under the NRPPs, Heading 2 for certain directly managed action through the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) and Heading 3, external spending for contributions to regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPA) with third countries;

E.whereas Parliament’s Interim Report regrets the reduction of the budget and calls for an increase to EUR 7,29 billion (in current prices, which is equivalent to EUR 6.50 billion in 2025 constant prices) and for additional financing under the external heading 3 amounting to EUR 1,69 billion (in current prices which is equivalent to EUR 1,50 billion in 2025 constant prices);

1.Reiterates its criticism that the amounts dedicated to the CFP would not be sufficient to attain the objectives of the policy, which comprises areas of exclusive EU competence;

2.Insists therefore that the programme envelope should be increased from EUR 2 billion to EUR 7,29 billion (in current prices, which would be equivalent to EUR 6,50 in constant 2025 prices) in order to fulfil the programme’s multiple and ambitious objectives with the necessary predictability;

3.Considers that sufficient human resources must be available from the outset and throughout the entire programming period of the next MFF to ensure an effective implementation of the Union agricultural and fisheries policy; reminds that the appropriations for staff and administrative support expenditure must eventually be realigned with modified operational allocations;

4.Criticises that the dispersion of the CFP spending over several headings is not coherent with the very purpose of the MFF headings, namely to ringfence from each other distinct ‘categories of expenditure’, which, according to Article 312(3) of the Treaty shall correspond to the Union’s major sectors of activity;

5.Reiterates its call for a sufficiently detailed budgetary nomenclature for the CFP funding; deplores the lack of a sufficiently detailed indicative nomenclature for this policy area as proposed in the Legislative Financial and Digital Statement (LFDS) accompanying the NRP Regulation, which even lumps CAP and fisheries into one budget line; considers that this approach will hamper oversight and the budgetary authority’s ability to accurately steer policy priorities in the annual budgetary procedure; insists that the nomenclature should reflect specific objectives and the breakdown of the various types of intervention and support;

6.Recalls the proposal for a Regulation on establishing a budget expenditure tracking and performance framework and other horizontal rules for the Union programmes and activities (the ‘performance regulation’), which establishes a single streamlined list for performance indicators and monitoring and evaluation provisions, some of them being relevant for the sectoral CFP regulation; underlines that any change in the architecture, objectives and eligible actions under the programme will need to be appropriately reflected in the monitoring provisions under Annex I of the performance regulation, as part of the process of amending and negotiating that regulation;

7.Calls for the definition of consistent and harmonised requirements for Member States regarding the prevention, detection, reporting, and correction of fraud from the outset of the implementation period;

8.Stresses that robust control and audit frameworks must be established to protect the Union’s financial interests.

As part of its budgetary assessment, the Committee on Budgets also submits the following amendments to the proposal:

Amendment 1

Proposal for a regulation

Recital 10 a (new)

Or. en

Amendment 2

Proposal for a regulation

Recital 10 b (new)

Or. en