Endorsement of an updated long-term plan for cod stocks

The European Parliament's plenary session endorsed on 22 November 2016 an amendment to the 2008 regulation establishing a long-term plan for cod stocks in the Kattegat, the North Sea, the Skagerrak and eastern Channel, the west of Scotland and the Irish Sea, and fisheries exploiting those stocks.

The amendments aim to allow fishermen to be able to land every catch - not just cod - more easily, as the updated regulation removes limits on the number of days a vessel can spend in a fishing area. It also brings the regulation to full compatibility with the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), by applying the obligation to land all catches in full.

The proposal to amend the Regulation (EC) No 1342/2008 was released by the European Commission in September 2012, aimed at covering urgent areas until entirely superseded by more recent multi-annual plans for multi-species fisheries. The Council of the European Union and the Parliament reached an informal agreement on this matter in June 2016. As a result of this endorsement, the regulation was set to enter into force four days after its publication in the EU Official Journal and to be applied from 1 January 2017.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Long-term management plan for cod fisheries http://www.europeansources.info/record/long-term-management-plan-for-cod-fisheries/

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