Over the next two days, the regional forum created by Baltic Sea Member States – BALTFISH – is meeting in Riga, Latvia, to discuss issues that will greatly affect the future of fishing and management in the region.
When stakeholders meet Member States representatives in Riga today, the forms of future regional collaboration in BALTFISH is on the agenda, together with implementation of the EU discard ban in the Baltic Sea and the fishing quotas for 2014.
The BALTFISH discussions mark the first steps in implementing the new EU Common Fisheries Policy, both in terms of increased regionalisation and in the proposal for the discard ban. Both will be important to get right.
The discard ban proposal will contain a number of new technical rules for the fisheries in the Baltic Sea. According to the agreed new basic Regulation – though this has not been formally published yet – technical measures can in the future be agreed upon regionally and then adopted by the Commission through so called Delegated Acts, with out going through full co-decision procedure.
This is an important simplification for more timely management, but it remains to be seen whether Member States will agree to measures that are in line with the conservation objectives and to what degree the Commission will assess this in the process of adopting the delegated acts. The European Parliament will have a more marginal role, but can in principle revoke delegated acts if they do not agree with the content.
The discussion on quotas for 2014 will also potentially set a precedence in terms of regionalisation, as the Baltic quotas are first to be agreed by EU ministers every year. If the Baltic Member States come to an agreement, this recommendation is likely to be followed by the full Council in October.
FISH, Oceana and Baltic 2020 will take part in the BALTFISH Forum today, representing the broader stakeholders working with fisheries and environment in the region.