Brussels, 04/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 23 January, the Spanish Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Miguel Arias Canete, will present the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee with the Spanish Presidency's priorities regarding fishing until 30 June of this year. According to a Spanish diplomat, the minister should place emphasis on four issues, the most important of which is pushing forward the debate on the reform of the common fisheries policy (CFP). The Spanish Presidency hopes, at the first of the two Fisheries Councils of the semester (8 April) to reach certain conclusions on the general framework of the reform (on the basis of an initial European Commission report on the general guidelines for the reform). For reasons of timing, the Presidency has little hope of securing results at the Fisheries Council of 11 June on concrete aspects of the reform (legislative proposals).
The other priorities of the Spanish Presidency are as follows: - plan for recovering threatened stocks of hake and cod in the North and West of Scotland (see EUROPE of 12 December 2001, p.11); - setting of the total allowable catches (TACs) for certain species of deep sea fish (shark, black scabbard fish, ling, pink bream, , tusk…); - adoption of a new strategy for programmes to reduce fishing activities, following the agreement secured at the December 2001 Council to extend by six months only the multi-annual guidance programmes - Magp IV (see EUROPE of 19 December, pages 8 and 9).
The Fisheries Council, tentatively scheduled for 10 January, will not take place as an agreement was reached last December on setting TACs and quotas for 2002. The Council regulation (of 18 December 2001) on fishing possibilities was published in the official journal L347 of 31 December 2001.