Brussels, 10/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 6 November, the Permanent Representative Committee to the EU (Coreper) ratified a compromise that would help give a mandate to the Luxembourg presidency of the Council of the EU to begin discussions with the European Parliament on the deep sea trawling dossier.
An initial inter-institutional meeting on this sensitive dossier may take place by the end of this month. The member states have agreed on the introduction of a fishing limitation system in deep-sea waters, which also includes a ban on the targeted fishing of deep-sea species by bottom trawlers fishing below 800 metres. It adopted its position in December 2013, which is not very far removed from what is currently contained in the Council mandate. The Brittany Fishing Committee has indicated that “Although this kind of fishing has been the subject of very strict management measures already, the Breton fisheries subsidiary has taken note of this decision made with the support of France and is delighted that member states in the Union have not endorsed excessive positions on this dossier, which has been the subject of much polemic for too many years”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)