The European Fisheries Ministers will be meeting in Brussels on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 December to try to agree on the total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2026 in the Atlantic, North Sea, Mediterranean and Black Sea.
The negotiations, which start on Thursday and are due to conclude on Friday, or even Saturday morning, promise to be difficult given the number of controversial issues involved. The European Commissioner for Fisheries, Costas Kadis, will defend the proposed restrictions, particularly in the Mediterranean (see EUROPE 13760/8).
With regard to autonomous stocks in the Atlantic, Channel and North Sea zones, discussions will focus in particular on Norway lobster stocks in Iberian waters, the three stocks of pollack in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian waters and sole in sub-zones 8c-e, 9 and 10 (Bay of Biscay and Atlantic coasts of northern Spain).
With regard to shared stocks, the EU/UK and EU/UK/Norway consultations have been completed - the corresponding TAC tables will be incorporated into the political agreement.
The EU/Norway consultations are continuing: the Commission is expected to propose provisional quotas to allow fishing activities to start in January. In negotiations with coastal States, no agreement was reached on mackerel. Here too, provisional quotas should be proposed for January.
Details of agreements with the United Kingdom and Norway: https://aeur.eu/f/jxk
Mediterranean. Other sensitive issues include the allocation of the bluefin tuna and skipjack TACs between EU countries, but above all the reduction in fishing effort for trawlers, the compensation mechanism (which allows vessels to gain days at sea) and the renewal of the TACs for blue and red shrimp and giant red shrimp.
The Commission is proposing a 65% reduction in fishing effort for French and Spanish trawlers in the EMU (Effort Management Unit) 1 zone and a 64% reduction for EMU 2 (Italy and France).
Under ‘Any other business’, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU will report (https://aeur.eu/f/jxj ) on the examination of the proposal on the conditions for implementing EU aid for the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the European Oceans Pact and the EU’s maritime and aquaculture policy. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)