Landing obligation: Agreement reached in trilogues
A press conference was held at the European Parliament, where MEP Alain Cadec (FR, EPP) gave an update on the outcome of the 2nd round of the inter-institutional negotiations regarding the landing obligation regulation (omnibus regulation).
He stated that an agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (latter still needs to present it before the Committee of the Representatives-COREPER for endorsement).
The decisions reached at the trilogues were:
- A potential “split” of the regulation (into a first part regulating the discard ban until the end of 2015 and a second part for the later implementation dates) was dropped.
- Member States will introduce storage measures for the juveniles caught by the fishermen.
- Member States will provide detailed data to the European Commission, which in turn will draft annual detailed reports to the Council and the European Parliament (annual impact assessment reports). According to MEP Van Dalen (NL, ECR), this measure will allow the European Parliament to “keep an eye on things”.
This regulation will cover the period up until 2020 (therefore will apply for demersal and other species as well).
Next steps: A technical meeting is to be held on the 6th February 2015 between the European Parliament and Council to clear out any details. Next, the agreed text will be presented for vote in the Fisheries Committee on the 23-24th February. Then, it will be put forward in April plenary (due to a minimum of 6 weeks for legal and juristic checks) for adoption.