Brussels, 23/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the EU and the European Parliament will try next week to bridge the gap that separates them on the new multiannual fisheries management plan (for cod, herring and sprat) in the Baltic Sea, indicated MEPs at a hearing on multi-species management plan in Brussels on Tuesday 22 September.
No agreement could be found, at the end of June, on the Baltic Sea cod plan and talks were suspended until further notice (see EUROPE 11343).
The rapporteur on the issue, Jaroslaw Walesa (EPP, Poland), said at the hearing organised by the Parliament's fisheries committee that multi-species management was more effective than management by species since it allowed account to be taken of interactions between species during fishing operations. The structure of the Baltic plan will serve as a model for other multi-species plans, he said. He argued for a regional approach in implementing the rules of the management plan for Baltic stocks. Ulrike Rodust (S&D, Germany) was not hopeful that the deadlock on this issue would be broken in trialogue.
Ireneusz Wojcik from the Marine Research Institute in Poland recommended that the regulation on technical measures in fisheries be revised and that fishermen be left greater freedom in the choice of fishing gear. Olivier Leprêtre, president of the Boulogne-sur-Mer fisheries committee, said that fishermen were trying out the landing obligation (the result of the ending of discards) and that they had as yet not found any miracle solution. The landing obligation rules are very difficult, he argued and bring with them untenable socio-economic effects (working without payment, no possibility of processing discards). He criticised the cod plan in the North Sea and the Channel and suggested the sole management plan in the Channel as an example to be followed. Simon Collins, the head of the Shetland Fisherman's Association (Scotland), said: “We need multi-species management plans”. He also called for greater flexibility in implementing common fisheries policy (CFP) rules. Raul Prellezo, principal researcher, AZTI, Basque Country, Spain, said that the landing obligation would probably affect the profitability of fishing fleets in the short term. Over the medium term, some vessels will do better than others, and, in the long term, uncertainty reigns, he argued.
Alain Cadec (EPP, France), who chairs the Parliament's fisheries committee, noted that implementation of the landing obligation was causing problems. “This will perhaps have to be reviewed in the coming weeks and months to bring some changes to the landing obligation and a little more flexibility” for fishermen, he said. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)