The message from Council is clear: this is their final offer under the Irish Presidency. However, on the key issues Member States have made such minor compromises that rapporteur Ulrike Rodust (S&D, DE), who said “Ministers have made certain concessions but I would have liked to see a more courageous decision”, finds herself in a dilemma ahead of the final trilogue meeting on 28 and 29 May.
This evening, the Council is expected to conclude their discussions on the basic Regulation of the CFP reform and provide the Irish Presidency with a revised negotiating mandate for the upcoming trilogue meetings. Unless Member States compromise amongst themselves to move away from the General Approach, negotiations with the European Parliament will break down causing further delays to the already much drawn out CFP reform.
On 13 and 14 May, the crucial Council meeting to decide on their final negotiating position on the basic Regulation takes place. In order to bridge the divide between the European institutions, rapporteur from the Parliament, Ulrike Rodust (S&D, DE), wrote to Ministers last week informing them she was willing to make sacrifices “in order to achieve a compromise”.
Invite your Minister to get on board the good ship sustainable fishing. This website encourages EU citizens to call on their representatives to pass laws which let fish stocks recover, supports sustainable fishing and ends harmful subsidies.
As the much-delayed reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy draws toward its conclusion, a last-minute deal between the European Parliament and Council may have to be brokered due to the lack of progress thus far on key issues.
The proposed discard ban in the Skagerrak, a body of water between the North and Baltic seas, will lead to vessels being obliged to land all fish caught and count these against quotas. These measures will apply to 35 species , will be controlled by a mandatory automated CCTV system, and will apply to vessels of any national flag operating in these waters. The ban will the phased in from 2014-2016.
FISH, Coalition Clean Baltic, Oceana and other stakeholders in the region have come together in a call for action to improve practices and protection in the Baltic Sea. The targets are there; now we have to meet them!
In a new article academics have sought to re-evaluate the catches of the Chinese distant-water fleet during 2000-2011. They claim that the official figures provided to the FAO represent a mere 9% of their actual catch, and the revised estimate of 4.6 million tonnes per year of fish caught should instead be valued at close to €9 billion per year.
Today, some Members of the European Parliament and Member States are in favour of bringing back subsidies for construction of new vessels and modernisation measures as part of the new EU fund for fisheries and maritime affairs. This would be contradictory to the UN Rio+20 agreement on subsidies and could harm global negotiations in the WTO.
On March 21, 2013 the ENVI Committee voted in favour (58 to 1) of a deep sea trawling ban at depths below 200 m. Unfortunately, the PECH Committee delayed their discussions because of an intervention by the industry as little as 12 hours before they were to meet. This delay tactic enables the deep-sea fishing industry’s desire to weaken or destroy the regulation.