Negotiators from the three EU institutions hope to conclude their negotiations on the reform of fisheries control rules on 30 May, but the task will not be easy.
At the meeting of the Committee of Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) on Friday 10 March, the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU informed the meeting of the results of the trilogue on the Control Regulation on 8 March. Progress has been made, but more work needs to be done before an agreement can be reached on this sensitive issue.
Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council have reportedly found common ground on several chapters of the text, such as infringements and controls, control of fishing capacity and of the landing obligation (including the conditional use of cameras on board vessels, or CCTV) and the traceability of processed products (see EUROPE 13133/5).
There are still differences of opinion on the margins of tolerance. Under the current regulations, fishing vessels have a 10% margin of tolerance per species for catch reporting.
As a compromise, the Council suggested: - a margin of error in the fishing log estimates of 20% for all species kept on board that do not exceed 100 kg; - in the case of catches above 10 tonnes for small pelagic and industrial fisheries, a preferential margin of tolerance would be applied if the landings are inspected (in the absence of such inspections, the margin of tolerance would be 10% per species); - a specific margin of tolerance for 5 years (after the entry into force of the text) for the purse seine fishery for tropical tuna.
The modalities for transmitting catch data from recreational fisheries to the Commission are still being discussed by the institutions. The remaining contentious issues will be negotiated at the 12th and final trilogue at the end of May.
Last Council mandate: https://aeur.eu/f/5QA (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)