Protocol

to the Conference of the representatives of the States Parties to the Convention on fishing and conservation of living resources in the Baltic Sea and the Belts

Warsaw, 9 to 11 November 1982

1. At the invitation of the Government of the Polish People's Republic, a Conference of the representatives of the States Parties to the Convention on fishing and conservation of living resources in the Baltic Sea and the Belts was held in Warsaw from 9 to 11 November 1982.

2. The following States were represented at the Conference:

- the Kingdom of Denmark,

- the Republic of Finland,

- the German Democratic Republic,

- the Federal Republic of Germany,

- the Polish People's Republic,

- the Kingdom of Sweden,

- the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

3. The European Economic Community, invited as an Observer, was also present at the Conference and took part in the debates.

4. Mr Marian Fila, Head of the Polish Delegation, was elected Chairman of the Conference.

Mr Bertil Roth, Head of the Swedish Delegation, was elected Vice-Chairman of the Conference.

The Secretary of the Conference was Dr Zdzislaw Russek, Secretary of the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission.

5. The Conference based its deliberations on the Final Report from the meeting of the representatives of the States Parties to the Convention on fishing and conservation of living resources in the Baltic Sea and the Belts held in Warsaw from 22 to 26 June 1981.

6. As a result of its deliberations, the Conference agreed to make the following amendments to the Convention:

(a) the preamble is completed with a new introductory note:

- "- noting that the States of the Baltic Sea basin have extended their jurisdiction over the living resources to waters beyond and adjacent to their territorial sea,";

(b) Article VIII, paragraph 3, is reworded as follows:

"Each Contracting State shall have one vote in the Commission. Decisions and recommendations of the Commission shall be taken by a two-thirds majority of votes of the Contracting States, present and voting at the meeting, provided, however, that any recommendation relating to areas under the fisheries jurisdiction of one or more Contracting States shall enter into force for these States only in case they have given affirmative vote thereto.";

(c) Article IX, paragraph 1, lit. (a) and (b) are reworded and lit. (d) is added as follows:

"(a) to coordinate the management of the living resources in the Convention area by collecting, aggregating, analyzing and disseminating statistical data, for example concerning catch, fishing effort and other information;

(b) to promote coordination, as appropriate, of scientific research and, when desirable, of joint programmes of such research in the Convention area;

(d) to examine information submitted by the Contracting States in accordance with Article XII, paragraph 3.";

(d) Article X, lit. (f), is reworded as follows:

"(f) any measures establishing total allowable catch or fishing effort according to species, stocks, areas and fishing periods including total allowable catches for areas under the fisheries jurisdiction of Contracting States.";

lit. (g) is deleted;

present lit. (h) is enumerated as (g);

(e) Article XI - a new paragraph 4 is introduced and the present paragraph 4 is reworded as a new paragraph 5 as follows:

"4. (a) After the date of entry into force of a recommendation adopted by the Commission, any Contracting State may notify the Commission of the termination of its acceptance of the recommendation and, if that notification is not withdrawn, the recommendation shall cease to be binding on that Contracting State at the end of one year from the date of notification.

(b) A recommendation which has ceased to be binding on a Contracting State shall cease to be binding on any other Contracting State 30 days after the date on which the latter notifies the Commission of the termination of its acceptance of the recommendation.

5. The Commission shall notify the Contracting States of any notification under this Article immediately upon the receipt thereof.";

(f) the following wording is added at the end of Article XII, paragraph 3:

"including information on control measures taken to ensure the application of the recommendations of the Commission.";

(g) Article XIII is reworded as follows:

"Each Contracting State shall inform the Commission of its legislative measures and of any agreements which it may have concluded, in so far as those measures and agreements relate to the conservation and utilization of fishery resources in the Convention area.";

(h) Article XVII is reworded as follows:

"1. This Convention shall be subject to ratification or approval by the Signatory States. Instruments of ratification or instruments of approval shall be deposited with the Government of the Polish People's Republic which shall perform the functions of the Depository Government.

2. This Convention shall be open for accession to any State interested in the preservation and rational exploitation of living resources in the Baltic Sea and the Belts or to any intergovernmental economic integration organization to which the competence in the matters regulated by this Convention has been transferred by its Member States, provided that this State or organization is invited by the Contracting States.

3. Any reference to "Contracting State" in this Convention shall apply mutatis mutandis to the organizations mentioned under the previous paragraph and which have become Parties to this Convention.

4. In case of conflict between the obligations of an organization mentioned in paragraph 2 under this Convention and its obligations arising under the terms of the agreement establishing such an organization or any acts relating to it, the obligations under this Convention shall prevail."

7. As a further result of its deliberations the Conference agreed upon the following provisions which constitute an Appendix to Article XVII concerning the accession of the EEC to the Convention:

(a) at the request of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Economic Community (EEC) is invited by all Contracting States to accede to the Convention in the place of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany; by way of derogation from Article XIX of the Convention, the membership of those two Contracting States in the Convention shall cease at the moment when the Convention enters into force for the EEC;

(b) from the time of its accession, the EEC shall take over all rights and obligations of a Contracting State as stipulated by the Convention including inter alia the right of one vote and the obligation to contribute one of the equal shares to the total amount of the Budget and shall ensure the strict application of all obligations deriving from this Convention;

(c) participation of the EEC in this Convention shall not be deemed to affect rights, claims or views of Contracting States in regard to the delimitation of the fishery zones and to the extent of jurisdiction over fisheries, according to international law;

(d) The withdrawal of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany will not affect the established official languages of the Commission;

(e) Instruments of the accession of the EEC to the Convention shall be deposited with the Depository Government.

8. The representatives of the EEC made a statement which is annexed to this Protocol.

9. The text of this Protocol, being a single original in the English language, shall be deposited with the Government of the Polish People's Republic. The Government of the Polish People's Republic shall send a certified copy of this Protocol to each of the States whose representatives took part in the Conference for acceptance of the amendments contained in the Protocol, according to the procedure provided for in Article XVI of the Convention.

Done in Warsaw this eleventh day of November 1982.

For the Delegation of the Kingdom of Denmark

For the Delegation of the Republic of Finland

For the Delegation of the German Democratic Republic

For the Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany

For the Delegation of the Polish People's Republic

For the Delegation of the Kingdom of Sweden

For the Delegation of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics

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ANNEX

Statement by the representatives of the European Economic Community

In so far as Article XVII, paragraph 4, is concerned, the representatives of the European Economic Community want to underline the following points:

1. the accession of the European Economic Community to this Convention does not create any conflict between the obligations of the Community under the Treaty which established it and the obligations inherent in this Convention;

2. similarly, no conflict is created between existing Community law and the obligations arising from the Convention. Moreover, any hypothetical conflict is excluded since the accession of the European Economic Community to this Convention will have to be approved by the Council of Ministers of the European Communities. By this act of approval any potentially conflicting previous legal act will be overruled;

3. as far as future Community law is concerned, the Community will be bound, like any other Contracting Party, to respect the obligations under the Convention.

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