Brussels, 08/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 8 December, the European Commission adopted a 2006-2008 Action Plan for streamlining and improving fisheries legislation, concentrating on conservation and control. The plan identifies a number of regulations currently in force as priority targets for restructuring and revision, including TACs and quotas, fishing efforts, technical measures for the protection of young fish, data collection and management, monitoring measures, reporting obligations and authorisations to fish outside EU waters.
By focussing on conservation and control, the Commission hopes to improve working conditions for both fishermen and public officials. The Action Plan includes specific commitments to earlier and fuller consultation and confirms other recent initiatives by the Commission as part of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) decided in 2002 (multi-annual conservation strategy, targeting conservation instruments by region or by fishery, taking better account of interaction between fishing and the environment and extending the use of advanced technology in control, monitoring and reporting).