Due to the Thursday extra EU summit to discuss candidates for new top official offices, the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting has been limited to just one day, Friday. According to the Swedish Presidency, however, all fisheries issues will remain on the agenda.
That means that the ministers will decide on the Commission’s proposal for a new regulation concerning the conservation of fisheries resources through technical measures, and also set new catch quotas for the Black Sea. Although a lunch discussion on the future of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the issue of minimising unwanted by-catch of seabirds were not on the new agenda published by the Council, a spokesperson for the Swedish minister, who will chair the meeting, claimed that those points would still be valid.
Like before the October Council meeting, FISH and Seas At Risk recently sent an advance letter to the ministers, their advisers and other politicians, officials and stakeholders, with standpoints and lengthy background material on most of the issues, except the Black Sea TACs.
The technical measures proposal was originally intended only to unify and simplify existing provisions, but has grown to include a number of new and revised measures. The SARFISH letter expressed concern on some of them, including the future role of the Commission in the implication.
The letter also questioned the downward adjustment of some Minimum Landing Sizes (MLS), FISH/Seas At Risk pointing out that it is “a fundamental measure to avoid targeting juveniles and should be closely linked to the relevant mesh sizes and gear regulations in order to be effective”.
On the seabird by-catch issue – raised by the United Kingdom – the letter noted that the incidental catch of such is mainly caused by longline fisheries and gill-nets, and urged the Council to take “emergency action” for the most threatened shearwater species.
As for the CFP discussions – the European Union is set for a new CFP in 2012 – FISH and Seas At Risk attached a discussion paper earlier published by the OCEAN2012 coalition, where both organisations are founding members.
The scaling down of the November Council meeting to just one day will mean that the next meeting will be extended to three days, December 14-16.