EU fishing companies active in the cod fishery in the Barents Sea, represented by Europêche, once again denounced, on Tuesday 15 March, Norway’s decision to unlawfully appropriate the EU’s long-held cod quota in the Svalbard area.
Due to the disagreement between the two parties, the EU had to provisionally allocate a partial cod quota to European vessels for 2022. This reduced quota of 4,500 tonnes will expire at the end of March and a new quota must be issued (see EUROPE 12775/7).
Given the lack of real progress in the bilateral negotiations, the European fishing industry has written to the European Commission asking it to decide on “a unilateral allocation of the full amount that historically corresponds to the EU fleet, i.e. 19,636 tonnes, plus 4,964 tonnes of cod that Norway owes from 2021”.
Norway exports more than €1.3 billion worth of fishery products to the EU each year, most of which are tariff free. The amount of quota withheld from the EU represents only 1% of the total TAC of cod in the Barents Sea and 0.5% of the quota available to Norway, but it amounts to 25% of the EU quota.
More information: https://aeur.eu/f/sd (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)