Brussels, 26/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 26 November, the Council of Ministers of the European Union adopted without debate the regulation on fishing possibilities for 2008 (cod, salmon, herring, plaice and sprat) to be granted to vessels carrying out their activities in the waters of the Baltic Sea. The European Fisheries Ministers reached a political agreement on this dossier on 23 October (see EUROPE 9530 for details). Only Estonia voted against the regulation, over the quota for herrings in the Gulf of Riga. In a declaration annexed to the minutes of the Council, Estonia specifies that for reasons of prudence, it would have preferred a reduction in the total allowable catch (TAC) of this species in 2008. As catches of herring represents between 80 and 90% of the revenue of the coastal fishermen of this region, the exhaustion of stocks in the Gulf of Riga would have “enormous socio-economic consequences”, Estonia explained.
This agreement on the TACs and quotas helped, amongst other things, to put an end to the dispute between Poland and the European Commission on cod fisheries. Poland has undertaken to “resolve the problem of erroneous declarations and undeclared landings” of cod and to set in place an action plan including immediate measures to resolve control problems. The Polish fishermen have long been opposed to the closure of cod fishing in the western Baltic until the end of the year, a decision taken by the Commission, having ruled that Poland had reached the limit of its fishing possibilities. (L.C.)