The European Commission has centred its updated 2026 fishing opportunities in the Mediterranean and Black Sea on keeping recovering stocks on a sustainable path while limiting disruption for coastal fleets.
The latest scientific data from the western Mediterranean show rising biomass and declining fishing mortality, signalling that the multiannual management plan is starting to deliver results. Yet most stocks remain overfished and the Commission argues that targeted reductions in effort are still necessary to reach sustainable mortality levels.
The proposal therefore introduces tighter controls for the most vulnerable species, including Norway lobster populations in Catalonia and Sardinia, where additional pressure could jeopardise progress.
For fleets which do not target these stocks, the Commission has scaled back initial reductions to avoid unnecessary economic strain while preserving the ecological benefits achieved so far.
To provide further flexibility, the updated plan continues the compensation scheme launched for 2025, allowing fishers to implement supplementary conservation measures in exchange for regaining some fishing days.
The measures also fold in commitments made at the most recent session of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. These include regionally agreed catch and effort limits for species such as small pelagic and demersal fish in the Adriatic Sea, blackspot seabream in the Alboran Sea, turbot in the Black Sea and several deep-water shrimp stocks across the Strait of Sicily, the Ionian and Levant Seas.
EU fisheries ministers will now examine the proposal within the AGRIFISH Council, where negotiations will shape the final 2026 fishing opportunities ahead of formal adoption later this year.
