EU fisheries ministers will meet on Sunday 12 and Monday 13 December in Brussels to try to agree on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2022.
The negotiations on fishing quotas, which will start on Sunday and continue throughout the day and evening on Monday, are linked to consultations with the UK (and Norway) on fishing opportunities in 2022 that are shared with the EU.
Provisional TACs with the UK? The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets a deadline (10 December) for reaching agreement on annual quotas. 65 TACs should be set.
The European Commission has presented provisional TACs in a non-paper in case the talks fail on 10 December, as was the case last year for the fishing possibilities in 2021 for the shared EU/UK stocks.
Licences too. France will discuss the outcome of the ongoing negotiations with the UK on the fishing licences granted to French vessels in UK waters.
The deadline is also Friday 10 December. 95% of the licences applied for by France were validated by the British, according to the latest count by the Commission (see EUROPE 12850/10, see other news) early Friday afternoon.
Ministers will try to agree on a number of TACs for 2022 in the Atlantic, Channel and North Sea.
Discussions are still ongoing on certain priority stocks for several delegations, including sea bass, southern hake, the four sole stocks, Norway lobster, pollack stocks and cod in the Kattegat straits.
Two delegations reportedly had reservations about the Commission’s proposal on how to proceed with mackerel.
A discussion is also expected on the bluefin tuna TAC in the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) area, as Ministers have different views on the deduction of the UK share.
Eels. The Commission proposes to continue the three-month closure of eel fisheries for all life stages of the species in all fisheries and waters of the North-East Atlantic in 2022.
Western Mediterranean. The main outstanding issue is the reduction of fishing effort for demersal stocks in the Western Mediterranean (see EUROPE 12840/15). Some delegations are calling for a less severe approach than the 7.5% cut proposed by the Commission for 2022. Some ministers believe that measures to increase selectivity could be more effective than this 7.5% reduction in the number of days spent at sea.
Some delegations also question the fact that the reduction of fishing effort applies not only to trawlers but also to longliners.
The Commission proposes to introduce TACs that would apply to deep-sea shrimp for the first time. One delegation rejected this proposal and questioned the legality of introducing TACs under the multi-annual management plan for TACs in the Western Mediterranean.
The objective of this plan is to achieve maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by 1 January 2025 for Western Mediterranean fisheries.
‘Miscellaneous’ items. The Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU will present on Sunday 12 December the state of play of the negotiations between EU institutions on the revision of the rules on controls (see EUROPE 12844/20).
Finally, the Commission will provide information on a ‘Strategic approach to maximise the added value of public investments’ in the programming of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) 2021-2027.
Commission working document of 8 December on certain quotas, in particular anchovy in the Bay of Biscay (24,000 tonnes): https://bit.ly/3y9VHYI
Working document of 8 December on ICCAT quotas, including bluefin tuna: https://bit.ly/3lUe92G (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)