Representatives of the EU institutions (EU Council, European Parliament and Commission) reached a compromise on Tuesday 22 September on the regulation to grant aid to Baltic Sea cod fishers (see EUROPE 12473/11).
“We will reduce the fishing capacity in the Baltic to address the dire situation of fish stocks”, commented EU Fisheries Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius. He added: “We will provide financial support to fisherwomen & men to scrap their vessels.
The compromise extends the scope of the proposal (cod fishers in the Eastern Baltic) to cod and herring fishers in the Western Baltic.
Member States affected by the closure of the Eastern Baltic cod fishery will have the possibility to make financial support for permanent cessation of fishing activities under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) 2014-2020.
This support (permanent cessation) will have to be accompanied by a reduction in the size of the fleet involved in these activities.
The other elements of the agreement are: - the threshold applicable to the live weight of cod (above which a fishing vessel is required to land its catches in a designated port) is set at 250 kg; - Member States are required to communicate to the Commission the yearly average from 2015-2019 of the total capacity of all vessels with fishing opportunities allocation for each of the three concerned stocks, as well as the total amount of capacity withdrawn for these vessels; - Member States cannot re-allocate capacity to these vessel groups before five years following the withdrawal, or before the stock concerned has been above sustainability levels for a period of three years.
The European Parliament and EU Council have yet to approve the text of the agreement. The Regulation will enter into force one day after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)