Late on Monday 11 December in Brussels, the European fisheries ministers are hoping to reach a political agreement on fishing opportunities for 2024 in the waters of the Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean.
From Sunday 10 December, they will be examining a first version of compromise texts on next year’s total allowable catches (TACs) in Community waters (one regulation concerns quotas in the Atlantic and another those in the Mediterranean and Black Sea). Bilateral meetings will then be held with a view to presenting new compromise texts on Monday.
The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU’s first quantified proposals for certain stocks concerning sole, the compensation mechanism for trawlers in the Mediterranean and recreational fishing for pollack.
Some of the areas of conflict with regard to catches in the Mediterranean are the reduction in fishing effort (days at sea) by trawlers (the Commission is proposing a reduction of 9.5% in 2024) and the TACs for deep-water shrimp.
With regard to the proposal on TACs in the Atlantic and North Sea, the Commission is proposing to maintain the six-month closure on eel fishing (and to include freshwater in the proposal), an approach that several delegations consider to be too severe. Other stocks under negotiation could be cod in the Kattegat, whiting in the Bay of Biscay or pollack in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian waters.
EU/UK agreement. The EU has reached an agreement with the UK on fishing opportunities for 2024 for bilaterally shared fish stocks in the North-East Atlantic, according to several European sources. The details should be known by 8-9pm on Friday 8 December.
This agreement is to be included in the regulation on the 2024 TACs in EU waters.
Miscellaneous. Under ‘Any Other Business’ on Sunday 10 December, the Netherlands and France will announce a ‘Greater North Sea Basin Initiative’ (https://aeur.eu/f/a26 ).
It should be noted that the issue of forced labour on Chinese fishing vessels will be put on the table by the Netherlands (https://aeur.eu/f/a28 ).
Finally, Portugal will ask (https://aeur.eu/f/a25 ) to extend until the end of 2024 the period of eligibility of expenditure for financial compensation to shipowners (implementing decision 2022/500 providing for derogations due to the war in Ukraine – https://aeur.eu/f/a2n ), “given that the exceptional circumstances that led to its approval are still ongoing”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)