Brussels, 21/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 21 October, backed most of the points in the proposal to revise cod stock recovery measures in the North Atlantic (see EUROPE 9736). With the adoption (by the comfortable majority of 636 votes to 31, with 11 abstentions) of the report by Niels Busk (ALDE, Denmark) on the cod recovery plan, the EP supported all of the amendments brought by its fisheries committee, including the one which states that “all cod caught ought to be landed, rather than discarded, so as to enable proper scientific evaluation of stocks”.
In other words, the EP calls for a ban on all cod discards in the waters covered by the recovery plan (North Sea, West Scotland, Kattegat and Skagerrak, Eastern Channel and Irish Sea). Further, the EP backs extending the recovery plan to include the Celtic Sea, something the Commission wants, but which is opposed by a number of EU member states. A further amendment states that, when the state of cod stocks has significantly improved, the Commission will review regulations on fishing effort
During the debate the previous day, Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said he was pleased that the EP shared the Commission's views on cod recovery. “Fishing mortality is too high. The abundance of cod is too low,” he said. The Commission is happy with about half of the EP's amendments. European fisheries ministers who, for the most part, feel the Commission proposal is too harsh, will try to reach political agreement on this issue by the end of the year. (L.C./transl.rt)