One day of fisheries for EU Ministers

Aquaculture, the control system and the future setting of TACs will be up for debate as the EU Council devotes most of its Tuesday sessions to fisheries.

In April the Commission presented a plan to “give fresh impetus to sustainable growth to the EU’s aquaculture sector”. The Czech Presidency has now drafted conclusions to be discussed and, to be adopted, need unanimous approval from the Fisheries Ministers. The draft stresses the necessity to simplify the “administrative burdens” for the sector in order to improve its competitiveness, as well as better communication and information to consumers.

The Council will then hold a general policy debate on the control regulation proposed by the Commission last November. The discussions, to provide guidelines for the Council working group, will focus on three questions put forth by the Presidency:

1. Which control instruments and means should be introduced or further developed to allow the development of an integrated and global approach to control? Should there be any derogation for small scale fisheries?
2. Should sanctions for infringements of CFP rules be further harmonized? If so, to what extent? Should a penalty point system be set up? If so, how?
3. As regards powers, to what extent, if any, should
   • the Commission be provided with more possibilities to intervene proportionately to the
   • level of non-compliance with CFP rules;
   • the powers of Community inspectors be redefined;
   • the mandate of the Community Fisheries Control Agency be extended?

No decisions will be made at this meeting, despite some earlier hopes. The whole proposal is scheduled to be up for a vote during the Swedish Presidency this fall.

Finally, the Fisheries Ministers will exchange views on a communication the Commission presented a month ago, proposing greater flexibility in changing TACs from year to year, in order to enable more effective recovery measures for overexploited stocks. The Commission plans to launch a formal proposal later this fall, to be adopted by the Council before the end of the year.