The EU Council of Ministers adopted, by written procedure expiring at 4 pm on Friday 29 January, the ‘initial guidance’ for the start of consultations with the United Kingdom on Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas for 2021 (2022 for deep-sea stocks).
The European Commission, which will conduct negotiations on behalf of the EU on more than one hundred stocks under shared management with the United Kingdom, has thus obtained a mandate from the EU Council (see EUROPE 12646/2, 12643/16).
The TACs and quotas were set in December 2020 for an initial period of three months (January-March). The final quotas are to be negotiated in light of the EU-UK trade agreement, which provides for a 25% reduction (in value), in five and a half years, in catches by EU vessels in UK waters.
The EU Council’s ‘initial guidance’, as seen by EUROPE, insists on “extensive coordination and cooperation” between the EU Council and the Commission during this process.
The EU Council stresses the need to take into account the “principles, objectives and provisions of the Common Fisheries Policy” in these talks with the United Kingdom. In leaving the EU, the UK no longer has to comply with the rules of the CFP, but the Brexit agreement takes over compliance with, among other things, maximum sustainable yield (MSY) stock management.
The Commission is invited to provide more details, stock by stock, on TAC levels as well as on other issues of importance to EU delegations, such as “remedial measures and the procedure for swaps of quotas”.
The Commission should take into account, according to the text, the position of delegations on stocks considered as priorities. Finally, the EU Council emphasises the conditions for a “level playing field” between the EU and UK fleets as regards remedial measures and the landing obligation (rule prohibiting discards of fish).
In a declaration dated 29 January, seen by EUROPE, France, Spain, Poland and Belgium reaffirm their commitment to the principles of the CFP and state that, in view of the TAC reductions provided for in the trade agreement with the United Kingdom, socio-economic aspects must not be neglected.
Link to the EU Council guidelines: http://bit.ly/3t7brZn (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)