Baltic Sea: Commission adopts report on multiannual plan
Overall, the Commission considers that the multiannual plan (MAP) has been helpful in implementing the common fisheries policy, notably for setting fishing opportunities, although the Baltic Sea also faces wider challenges that affect ecosystems and fisheries. Long-term trends that predate the MAP have a substantial impact on the evolution of the marine environment and the fish stocks in the Baltic Sea. The MAP’s implementation has decreased fishing pressure since 2016 and contributed to a moderately positive development in fisheries over the past years. Other environmental pressures beyond fisheries are having substantial effects on the health of certain stocks.
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The MAP has made it easier to put in place flanking measures to help stocks recover, and without the MAP, quotas likely would have been set at a higher level. At the same time, the MAP has enabled flexibility for healthy stocks by allowing the use of the upper FMSY range to buffer severe reductions in quotas. Thanks to the MAP, all fisheries are now either managed in line with maximum sustainable yield (MSY) or measures are put in place to bring them back to MSY. Altogether, it provides a basis for the long-term profitability of the fishing industry.
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The full article can be found at ec.europa.eu
Provisional agreement on reducing the fishing fleet in the Baltic with support from the EU
Additionally, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission reached a provisional agreement on legislation that would allow fishermen and -women affected by the dire condition of certain fish stocks in the Baltic Sea to leave the fishing sector with the financial support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), received under specific conditions. The agreement concerns specifically vessel owners in affected Member States wishing to permanently decommission their vessels that used to target eastern cod or that are active in the western cod and herring fishery.
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The difficult situation of the two Baltic cod fisheries and the western Baltic herring fishery has resulted in substantial reductions of fishing opportunities and the full closure of targeted eastern Baltic cod fishery since July 2019 and the Commission has proposed further reductions of fishing opportunities for 2021.
While these decisions were necessary to give the fisheries a chance to recover, they could also potentially result in severe and unavoidable economic hardship for the fishing communities and fleets traditionally targeting those stocks. At the Council meeting of 14-15 October 2019, the Commission and fisheries ministers and agreed to help the fishermen and -women most affected by this economically difficult situation. In October 2019, the Commission swiftly adopted a proposal to modify the relevant legislation. The agreement reached yesterday will address the potentially severe economic impact of these necessary measures. It comes only a few days before the Our Baltic conference, which will tackle the environmental factors affecting the Baltic Sea, such as biodiversity loss and climate change, eutrophication, overfishing and pollution. The European Parliament and the Council both need to confirm this agreement in the coming weeks.
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The full article can be found at ec.europa.eu