29.5.2014 Official Journal of the European Union L 163]7 REGULATION (EU) No 544/2014 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 15 May 2014 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 concerning a multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 43(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3), Whereas: (1) The Union is a Party to the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (*) (the Convention’). (2) At its 16th Special Meeting in 2008, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), established by the Convention, adopted Recommendation 08-05 to establish a new recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, replacing the previous recovery plan adopted in 2006. Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 (4) was adopted to implement those international conservation measures at Union level. (3)  Atits 17th Special Meeting in 2010, ICCAT adopted Recommendation 10-04 amending the multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna. Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 was then amended by Regulation (EU) No 500/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (°) to implement those revised international conservation measures at Union level. (4) At its 18th Special Meeting in 2012, ICCAT adopted Recommendation 12-03 further amending the multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna. In order to better adapt the fishing seasons to the activity of the fleets, Recom- mendation 12-03 provides for a modification of the fishing seasons, which are now defined as open seasons, as opposed to closed seasons indicated in the previous ICCAT Recommendations. In addition, the actual dates on which fishing is permitted by purse seiners, baitboats and trolling boats have been modified. Finally, to avoid any uncertainty for those gears which are not subject to any specific rules on fishing seasons, it was necessary to include a provision explicitly allowing all other gears, with the exception of all kinds of driftnets, the possibility to fish all year round. The periods and the dates of the fishing seasons in the Atlantic may be reviewed by ICCAT in 2015, following advice from the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics of ICCAT (SCRS). (5) At its 23rd Regular Meeting in November 2013, ICCAT adopted Recommendation 13-08 complementing Recom- mendation 12-03, in order to allow modifications to the fishing seasons for baitboats and trolling boats in the eastern Atlantic that do not affect the protection of the Bluefin tuna spawning grounds in the Mediterranean. That ICCAT Recommendation states that the Contracting Parties and Cooperating non-Contracting Parties, Entities or Fishing Entities may specify a different starting date for the fishing seasons for their baitboats and trolling boats operating in the eastern Atlantic, while keeping the total duration of the open season for those fisheries. That () OJ C 67, 6.3.2014, p. 157. (?) Position of the European Parliament of 16 April 2014 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 8 May 2014. (}) Council Decision 86/238/EEC of 9 June 1986 on the accession of the Community to the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, as amended by the Protocol annexed to the Final Act of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the States Parties to the Convention signed in Paris on 10 July 1984 (OJ L 162, 18.6.1986, p. 33). (*) Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 of 6 April 2009 concerning a multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, amending Regulation (EC) No 43/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1559/2007 (O] L 96, 15.4.2009, p. 1). (°) Regulation (EU) No 500/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 concerning a multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean (O] L 157, 16.6.2012, p. 1).