Brussels, 22/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Polish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers has taken an active part in the process of reform of the common fisheries policy (CFP) and intends, too, to become involved in the dispute that has set the EU at odds with Iceland and the Faroe Islands. These are the priorities in fisheries presented by the president in office of the Council Marek Sawicki, Polish Agriculture Minister, in Brussels on Tuesday 19 July. The end-of-year decisions on fishing quotas for 2012 (in the Black Sea, the Baltic, the waters of the Atlantic, North Sea and Channel) will be the other major issue on the Polish Presidency's plate.
The Commission is proposing to split the timetable for adopting the quotas for the Atlantic, North Sea and other zones. It suggests that the Fisheries Council should adopt quotas for exclusively EU stocks (Atlantic, North Sea and Channel) in November and that decisions on stocks shared between the EU and Norway and other third countries should be taken in December. For Poland, “the timetable is not the important thing, it's the final outcome”. However, several countries find this division of the Atlantic quota-decision timetable problematic. “Long-term planning is an important tool for the CFP” Sawicki said, referring to the deadlocked discussions between the Council and the Parliament on recovery plans (for example, those on anchovy and horse mackerel) because of disagreements over the legal basis. “If we want to get beyond this, we will have to overcome the reasons for the impasse”, the Polish Presidency said.
“The mackerel issue is very important. We would like to make progress in negotiations with Iceland and the Faroe Islands. We do not want these countries to set their mackerel TACs unilaterally”, Sawicki said. Iceland and the Faroe Islands allocated themselves huge mackerel quotas for the second year running, without any prior agreement with the EU. The Presidency hopes to be able to lead the Council and the European Parliament to an agreement on extending the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement.
The Presidency will begin discussion of the Commission proposal on the new European Fisheries Fund for 2014-2020. The Commission will propose no change to the budget dedicated to the fisheries and maritime affairs policies remain unchanged. In the proposal on the 2014-2020 financial framework, an envelope of €6.7 billion is planned for the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and international fisheries agreements. (L.C./transl.rt)