On Wednesday 26 April, EU Commissioner for Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius was very unhappy with the way the negotiations on reforming controls were going at a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries.
On the subject of the action plan on marine ecosystems, the Commissioner wished to put out the fire that had been lit by the plan to gradually ban the use of bottom trawling by fishermen in marine protected areas (MPAs) (see EUROPE 13138/33).
“The Marine Action Plan is not legally binding. It’s a political call for Member States to step up their ambition and meet their commitments”, said Mr Sinkevičius in the face of criticism from Peter van Dalen (EPP, Dutch), François-Xavier Bellamy (EPP, French) and Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (Renew Europe, Spanish). “What we want, is to increase the dialogue together with national authorities, with fishery stakeholders, to put together a roadmap in place at the level of each Member State or region to find solutions and to look for alternative techniques and flexibilities to reduce environmental impact of fisheries”, added the Commissioner.
Regarding the reform of the control system, the Commissioner criticised the changes suggested by the European Parliament and the EU Council on the margins of tolerance (declaration of catches), which would lead to “overfishing” of tropical tuna and pelagic species. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)