After two days and nights of negotiations, on the morning of Saturday 13 December, the European fisheries ministers reached political agreements on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2026 in the Atlantic, Channel and North Sea, and in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Only Ireland has indicated that it is opposed to the compromise reached on the 2026 Atlantic quotas, on the grounds that it will not be able to benefit from the ‘Hague preferences’, a mechanism that gave it higher quotas for certain species, including mackerel. France, along with Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Germany, formed a blocking minority to oppose the application of these ‘Hague preferences’. Ireland has expressed its “extreme disappointment” at this decision, which has provoked anger among its fishers (https://aeur.eu/f/jz8 ).
A Mediterranean standoff. The negotiations were particularly lengthy due to the resistance of Spain, France and Italy to the restrictions initially proposed (-64 or -65%, depending on the zone) on the fishing effort (authorised days at sea) of trawlers in the Western Mediterranean.
The ministers agreed to maintain the 2025 level of fishing effort for trawlers in waters where the Spanish, French and Italian fleets operate.
In order to mitigate the short-term socio-economic impact and reward more selective practices, the ministers agreed to continue using the compensation mechanism in a slightly adjusted form. Introduced for the first time in 2022, it allows additional fishing days to be allocated to operators who choose more selective gear or apply technical measures. The measures agreed by the Council should help to reduce fishing mortality while minimising the socio-economic impact on the sector. In particular, the decision was taken to increase the mesh size to 50 mm, in exchange for additional fishing days.
The Council also decided to maintain the blue and red shrimp catch quotas for 2025, both in Spanish and French waters and in Italian and French waters. The same applies to giant red shrimp in Italian and French waters.
Luis Planas, Spain’s Fisheries Minister, said he was “satisfied” with the outcome of the negotiations. The Spanish Mediterranean fleet will have 143 fishing days without the need for compensatory measures, “which guarantees the viability of the 556 trawlers”, he said. Mr Planas stressed that, to achieve this result, it had been very important to demonstrate “strategic intelligence”, by maintaining unity between Spain, France and Italy.
France also welcomed “the significant progress that has been made in reconciling the protection of fish stocks with the preservation of the economic activity of the fishing industry”.
The European Commission, for its part, has indicated that it cannot support the compromise reached for the Mediterranean, believing that it is not in line with the multi-annual management plan for the western Mediterranean, particularly with regard to setting the fishing effort.
The NGO Oceana has noted that 55% of stocks assessed in the Mediterranean remain overexploited. In its view, the ministers have chosen to maintain the number of fishing days set for 2025 in order to respond to socio-economic pressures, without however taking the necessary measures to really reduce fishing pressure and fleet overcapacity. This decision would run counter to the legal obligation for France, Italy and Spain to end overfishing by 2025. The NGO stresses that the effectiveness of the agreement will largely depend on the effective implementation of the compensation mechanism (gear modifications, spatial or seasonal closures).
As far as the Black Sea is concerned, the Council has agreed a TAC for turbot that is slightly lower than that for 2025, incorporating the carryover of the unused EU turbot quota in 2024. It also decided to maintain the closed season for turbot fishing, from 15 April to 15 June. For sprat, the 2026 catch levels have been maintained compared with the current year.
Atlantic and North Sea. In the Atlantic, Channel and North Sea, for stocks managed solely by the EU, the Council has reached political agreement on 24 TACs for 2026, and in some cases also for 2027 and 2028. In the Atlantic and Skagerrak-Kattegat, 81% of fishing opportunities have been set at sustainable levels, in line with the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) principle. Increases in TACs have been decided for: anchovy (+60%) and whiting (+11%) in Iberian waters; Norway lobster (+23%) in the Cantabrian Sea; anchovy (+8%, or 33,000 t) and Norway lobster (+49%) in the Bay of Biscay.
In order to protect saithe in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian waters, the Council has limited the increase in the TAC for sea bass in the Bay of Biscay (+48%). To protect cod and sole in the waters of Skagerrak-Kattegat, the TACs for Norway lobster and plaice have been renewed at 2025 levels.
TACs are down for: saithe in the Bay of Biscay, Cantabrian Sea and Iberian waters (-13%); whiting in the Bay of Biscay (-27%); sole in Skagerrak-Kattegat (-44%) and Iberian waters (-9%).
For most of the TACs shared with third countries, the EU has concluded a bilateral agreement with the UK and a trilateral agreement between the EU, Norway and the UK. The EU has also finalised negotiations on a bilateral agreement with Norway, including quota swaps and access arrangements. These include a 44% reduction in the TAC for cod in the North Sea, a 25% reduction for saithe in the North Sea and a 15% reduction for North Sea herring.
In consultations with third countries on the North-East Atlantic, no TAC has been set for mackerel, despite the EU’s efforts. The Council has therefore set a provisional quota for the first six months of 2026, down 70% on the 2025 volumes.
At the Council meeting, several Member States (France, Ireland, etc.) criticised Norway’s decisions (overfishing/lack of cooperation) and called on the Commission to apply Regulation 1026/2012 on unsustainable fishing as a matter of urgency in order to defend the Union’s legitimate rights and protect pelagic stocks in the North-East Atlantic. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)