Results of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting

Polish pay back

The Council adopted a regulation adjusting Poland's fishing quotas for Baltic Sea cod over a four year period, so as to compensate for over-fishing by Polish fishermen in 2007.

The regulation requires Poland to 'pay back' 10% of the exceeded quotas in 2008, and a further 30% in each of the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, in such a way as to avoid socio-economic consequences in the Polish fishing industry.

The payback is conditional on Poland taking action to control fishing and to reduce the overcapacity of its fishing fleet, including new provisions on the monitoring of quotas, the scrapping of the cod fleet and/or its transfer, even partially, to the fishing of pelagic species. Progress towards these objectives will be subject to annual review.

IUU fishing

The Council held a debate on a proposed regulation aimed at establishing a Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing.

The debate focused on three questions:

• The scope of the regulation, and in particular whether it should apply to Community vessels, which are already subject to a comprehensive control regime, or only to third country vessels

• The administrative burden that a proposed import certification procedure would entail, and possible alternative methods or measures to prevent imports of IUU fish products

• The suitability of proposed sanctions, and concerns that, for example, the proposed harmonisation could encroach upon member states' legal prerogatives

The proposal, presented by the Commission at the Council's meeting last November builds upon measures the EU has been taking to combat IUU fishing. But whilst existing measures focus mainly on the control of activities at sea, the new regulation would cover the entire supply chain (harvesting, transhipment, processing, landings and trade).

Cod recovery plan

The Council took note of the presentation by commissioner Joe Borg of a proposed regulation aimed at strengthening a recovery plan for cod stocks. It held an exchange of views.

The proposal, approved by the Commission on 2 April, is intended to improve several aspects of the plan, given that cod stocks remain under severe pressure.

The main proposed changes are as follows:

• Revision of the plan’s long-term objectives, so as to take account of the effects of global warming on ocean conditions

• Inclusion of an objective on fishing mortality

• Simplified and more efficient implementation of a management system to regulate fishing effort

• A modulated approach for the adjustment of fishing opportunities where recovery is already achieved for a given stock

• Measures to reduce cod discards and to encourage fishermen to engage in cod-avoidance programmes

• Inclusion of the Celtic Sea in the recovery plan

ICES has indicated that reductions in cod catches have so far failed to enable the recovery of four cod stocks in the Kattegat, in the North Sea (including the Skagerrak and the eastern Channel), in waters to the west of Scotland and in the Irish Sea.