The next trialogue meeting of representatives of the three EU institutions on technical measures in fisheries will take place on 19 June, a source revealed on Wednesday 6 June (see EUROPE 12031).
At the last meeting on 29 May, targets were discussed but no progress was made.
Technical level work remains to be done on the list of prohibited species of fish and shellfish in Annexe 1 and mitigation measures (to reduce the impact of fishing on sensitive species and habitats).
A source has said that there are no concrete results to report on the controversial issue of electric pulse fishing.
The Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is continuing to work on this file “in order to achieve as much progress as possible”.
The European Parliament has adopted an amendment that would ban the catching or harvesting of marine species by means of an electric current (see EUROPE 11940). The Council has come out in favour of maintaining the derogation on pulse fishing on an experimental basis (with a limit of 5% of each EU country’s beam trawler fleet operating in the North Sea). The Commission considers that pulse fishing could offer an alternative method of fishing that is less harmful to the environment. At present, 84 Dutch vessels use pulse fishing and Belgium has sought a derogation for three vessels. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)