Brussels, 31/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the EU has called on the European Parliament to adopt as a matter of urgency at its plenary session from 3 to 6 April in Strasbourg, its opinion on the draft regulation setting the arrangements for the new fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco. The Council will then be able to adopt the text by the start of May at the latest, allowing this important fishing agreement signed at the end of July 2005 to come into force (see EUROPE 9099).
The EP will vote on this emergency request from the Council on 4 April. If it agrees, the EP could debate the matter and give its decision on 6 April. The Chairman of the Parliamentary fisheries committee Philippe Morillon (ALDE, France) feels that political considerations over EU boats fishing in the coastal waters off the western Sahara must not override a fishing regulation of a technical nature. A large majority of EU Member States share this opinion and the legal services of the three EU institutions have concluded that this fisheries agreement was in full compliance with international law.
Coreper will take stock of this dossier and try to resolve the technical problems over how to share fishing possibilities among Member States. This issue could be on the agenda for the meeting of European Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers in Luxemburg on 25 April. At their meeting on 30 March, the experts from the Council's Fisheries Working Group agreed on how to share the annual quota of 60,000 tonnes (t) for industrial pelagic fishing: 48,500t to be shared among Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands, 7,500 t for the United Kingdom, Poland and Ireland (2,500 t each) and 4,000 t for France, Spain and Portugal (share still to be decided). These were just minor adjustments to the initial proposal which allowed 50,000 tonnes for the first group of countries, 6,000 for the second and 4,000 for the third. France, Spain and Portugal will have to agree on other the fishing possibilities which, at the moment, remain those allowed for in the proposal: 20 Spanish seine netters for the North pelagic fishery, 20 Spanish boats for the south small-scale fishery, 30 bottom longliners for the North small-scale fishery (20 Spanish and 10 Portuguese), 27 pole-and-line vessels (17 Spanish and 10 French), 22 trawlers and bottom longliners for demersal fishing (18 Spanish and 4 Portuguese).