Brussels, 24/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament (EP) reached agreement on long-term management plans for two species, anchovy in the Bay of Biscay and western horse mackerel, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 23 November. Parliament may be making progress in the procedure, but there is deadlock in the Council on these two plans, with a number of countries refusing to accept that the EP should have any say in procedures for setting fishing opportunities under these management plans (see EUROPE 10248). The problem over the legal basis is holding back implementation of long-term recovery plans for some stocks.
During the debate the previous day, European Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki called on the institutions to “find a solution” to the institutional problem which derives from the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The EP has co-decision-making powers in fisheries, except on setting total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas. Some recovery plans contain rules for setting TACs, and this is the source of the problem. Damanaki says that the Commission believes that the EP should be involved in the harvest rules in the long-term management plans. The treaty is clear on this matter, she stated. She said that some member states had reacted very strongly. However, a solution has to be found, she warned, “because otherwise we cannot go on to enforce long-term management plans and, as you will understand, long-term management plans are our future”. A way has to be found “to unblock the situation: I have in mind to try to find a way out by means of a trilateral meeting,” she said, proposing to convene a trialogue meeting (Commission, Council and Parliament). “We cannot go on like this. All the long management plans are blocked now, and I have new proposals about some new management plans” for salmon and for pelagic stocks, for example, she said.
Anchovy. With the adoption, by 612 votes to 33, with 13 abstentions, of the report by Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (ALDE, Spain) on the long-term management plan for anchovy, Parliament mirrored exactly the results of voting in the EP fisheries committee. The exploitation rule for setting the TAC, proposed in the plan, is based on estimates of spawning biomass for anchovy made in May and June of each year, immediately prior to the start of the fishing season which runs from 1 July to 30 June. If the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) cannot provide an assessment of the current biomass, the TAC and quotas will either have to be reduced, if that is what the STECF recommends, or remain pegged at the levels set for the previous fishing season.
It was decided that no TAC reduction should exceed 25%. Amendments allow live bait to be taken into account in calculating quotas. There is provision, too, for a control system for this fishery.
In addition, with the EP vote, Masters of fishing vessels carrying more than one tonne of anchovy will be obliged to notify the authorities of their flag member state at least one hour prior to the estimated time of their arrival in any port (rather than four hours before arriving in port, as in the initial proposal). “I want to thank the EP fisheries committee for the support it has given me on the content and also with regard to delegation of power to the Commission,” Damanaki said. She accepted the amendments, with the exception of the one-hour notification of arrival in port. She is sticking by the four hours because this is the time set by the new Community regulation on control which has been in force since the start of 2010.
Western stock of Atlantic horse mackerel. The EP also approved a multi-annual plan for the western stock of Atlantic horse mackerel, with a few changes to the initial proposal. Much to the displeasure of rapporteur Pat the Cope Gallagher (ALDE, Ireland), the EP adopted amendments put down by the EPP and GUE/NGL groups, the effect of which is to create two separate zones in the Bay of Biscay. According to the amendment this is to “take into account the specificity and purposes of the fleets involved, industrial or artisanal” - the one for processing and external trade and the other for supplying high quality fresh fish to the general public. Gallagher says that this sets “a very dangerous precedent for future mackerel management plans”. The text incorporates a non-official proposal from the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, seeking to introduce a level of flexibility into the way in which total catch is calculated, with a lower limit (70,000 tonnes) and an upper limit (80,000 tonnes) for the minimum level of total catch. The European Commission rejects this amendment. (L.C./transl.rt)