Brussels, 14/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 December in Brussels, EU fisheries ministers will resume talks on negotiations for Total Allowable Catches (TAC) and quotas for 2010 in the Atlantic, North Sea and in the Channel. After distributing the first draft compromise on Monday 14 December on fishing possibilities, which, above all, simply reflects some of the requests from member states, particularly for hake from the North, the Swedish presidency of the Council met up with each of the negotiations together with the European Commission, to identify the main causes of the blockage in the talks. A second compromise text is expected to be presented on Tuesday for a political agreement.
Joe Borg, the European Commission For Fisheries, admitted that the first compromise text did not include all demands from member states. With regard to the category of stocks on which there is not yet any scientific opinion, the Commission is prepared to limit the reductions in quotas to 10% (as opposed to a 15% cut put forward in the initial proposal). This is the case with certain sorts of Pollack (Channel, Celtic Sea), Black Pollack (Channel, Celtic Sa and the Bay of Biscay), cod, whiting, plaice and sole. The Commission has also defended his proposal on the mackerel management plan, particularly with regard to the sectioning off of management zones, which poses a number of problems to several countries (Ireland, France, and Netherlands etc. Mr Borg also justified the suggested restrictions for lobster in zone VII (Irish Sea, Channel and the Celtic Sea). The Commission is planning to ban the fishing of lobster in the Porcupine box and reduce the TAC by 20%, to 19 720 tonnes) the Commission originally proposed a cut of 30%). The United Kingdom and Ireland are calling for the current TAC to be maintained to this species.
Joe Borg underlined the importance of respecting the management plans. For example, Spain and Portugal are requesting that the number of days at sea for their ships is not reduced for fishing Southern Hake and lobster from the Iberian peninsular. The Commission is following the management plan rules, namely a reduction of 10% in fishing days.
The only real concession made by the Commission to Spain, above all (and also to France), can be located in the first compromise text which consists in accepting a rise of 7% in the TAC for Northern hake, to more than 55 000 tonnes, when originally it suggested a cut of 10% in catches for this species.
Negotiations proved more complicated due to the breakdown in negotiations on the annual bilateral agreement between the EU and Norway. The Commission is hoping to restart discussions with the Norwegians in mid-January 2010 in view of an agreement towards the end of that month. In the meantime, the Commission has included in the provisional fishing opportunities for 2010 reductions of 50% compared to the volumes for 2009: - 1) the seven jointly managed species by the EU and Norway in the North Sea: herring (48 922 tonnes, provisionally, for the EU in 2010), cod (11 951 tonnes, provisionally, for 2010), haddock (16 340 t, provisionally, for the EU), whiting (6 297 tonnes), plaice (26 308 tonnes for the EU), black Pollack (30 224 tonnes for the EU) and mackerel (11 727 tonnes for the EU in the waters of the Norwegian and North Seas); - 2) for species traded between the EU and Norway: blue whiting (37 029 tonnes for the EU), mackerel (155 767 tonnes for the EU in additional zones to the North Sea), sole in the North Sea (6955 tonnes for the EU), sprat in the North Sea (75 389 tonnes for the EU) and horse Mackerel (75 641 t).
The compromise also includes: - a 20% TAC reduction for cod from the Celtic Sea (the Commission originally proposed -25%); - a rise of 5% in the TAC for sole in the Bay of Biscay.
Dossiers for discussion include: - the decision on the targeted fishing of certain sharks, namely dogfish sharks and porbeagle sharks (France wants to maintain a small quota for the porbeagle shark, which will be carried out by six boats from the island of Yeu, which specialise in this fishing activity); - a 15% reduction in taxes for certain ray fish; - restart all and three fishing a in the Bay of Biscay (Spain wants a “small” quota from 1 January 2010, whereas the Commission is proposing a quota from July 2010 if the scientific opinion in June allows this). (L.C.)