Brussels, 30/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 2 May, the Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers is to propose that Coreper (the EU ambassadors) grant the European Parliament (EP) concessions with a view to facilitating a compromise on reform of the common fisheries policy (CFP). The revised draft mandate could awaken considerable reaction. The most controversial issues (discard ban, maximum sustainable yield, or MSY, and recovery plans) of the revised mandate could be discussed by the Fisheries Council on 13 and 14 May, in Brussels.
On discards, the revised mandate to be presented to Coreper provides for a de minimis exemption (tolerated percentage of discards) of 5% for all species, against higher figures (9% then 8% then 7%) in the Council's guidelines in March. The EP is opposed to any derogation. The draft text provides the possibility of adding 2% of discards during the first two years and 1% the following years. The EP proposes inter-annual flexibility of 5% on discards, while the Council's general guidelines sets this at 10%. The revised text proposes 9%. The text does away with the transitional two-year regime (one species can be disembarked without being imputed on the quota concerned within a 5% limit of the target stock per fishing sortie), provided for by the Council in order to close the gap with the EP. On MSY, reference is made to the biomass objective (as advocated by the EP), while sticking to the Council line (reaching MSY by 2015 if possible and 2020 at the very latest). (LC/transl.jl)