The European Parliament has voted to establish a multi-annual plan for the stocks of cod, herring and sprat in the Baltic Sea and the fisheries exploiting those stocks.
The ‘Baltic Plan’ is the first of its kind and the European Commission says now that the co-legislators have found an agreement on this kind of plan, sustainable long-term management plans can be proposed for other marine regions too.
According to the EC, the new generation of multi-annual plans will be instrumental to deploying the new Common Fisheries Policy and particularly to the issue of stopping waste and using all the fish that is caught rather than discarding it. The plans will also facilitate decentralised decision making for technical measures.
The European Parliament also decided to transpose the ICCAT bluefin tuna plan for the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean into EU legislation. The EC says that this will uphold the recovery of the stock while providing legal certainty to operators. The EC said that it welcomes in particular the constructive attitude of the co-legislators during the transposition process.
