The European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries could vote on Thursday 10 January in favour of a three-month ban on trawls below the 100-metre (m) isobath in the Mediterranean (see EUROPE 12144).
After a postponement of the vote at the end of November, under pressure from industrialists, especially from Italy, the European Parliament Fisheries Committee is expected to adopt on Tuesday the report by Clara Eugenia Aguilera García (S&D, Spain) on the multiannual plan for the management of demersal stocks in the western Mediterranean (see EUROPE 12147).
More than 300 amendments will be put to the vote, including 27 compromise amendments.
The trawl agreement is the subject of an EPP, S&D, ECR and ELDD agreement: it provides, to protect breeding areas, for a ban on trawls within the 100 m isobath between 1 July and 30 September each year, "within 6 nautical miles of the coast or within the 100 m isobath where that depth is reached at a shorter distance from the coast" (flexibility to take into account areas where the continental shelf is wide).
But these restrictions could be suspended in some cases, which worries NGOs advocating a strict year-round ban on these trawls. In effect, the compromise amendment specifies, when the best available scientific advice indicates that the prohibition should be “extended, limited or repealed”, that the Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts to this effect.
The Commission had proposed such a ban between 1 May and 31 July each year. The period chosen by the EP (1 July - 30 September) coincides with the biological resting period of the octopus.
TAC. At this stage, Parliament refuses to introduce Total Allowable Catches (TACs). It called for a 10-30% reduction in fishing effort during the first three years of the plan. However, the compromise amendment leaves the door open for the establishment of TACs and quotas in the Mediterranean: three years after the entry into force of the text, and if scientific advice indicates that the fishing effort regime is not effective, the Commission could propose additional measures including TACs. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)