Brussels, 26/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - After two days of tense negotiations, the EU and Norway reached agreement on Saturday morning about the breakdown of fishing rights in 2004 for shared stocks. This required the settling of a long-standing dispute over two issues:
Cod in the Barents Sea: Compared with 2003, the EU won an increase of 3765 tonnes in its Total Allowable Catch (TAC) to 20120 tonnes, but in exchange Denmark and France had to agree to transfer part of their shrimp quota to Norway (some 330 tonnes in total).
Haddock in the North Sea: Norway was unhappy about Member States provisionally agreeing at the December Fisheries Council, without consulting Norway, on TACs and quotas for stocks managed in common. Norway has long expressed reservations about the EU's planned increase in the haddock TAC for the North Sea. The EU had to agree to reduce its planned quotas to a TAC of 77000 tonnes, rather than 80000 tonnes as had been agreed at the Fisheries Council.