Outcome of the October Agrifish Council
The Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting of October 2014 took place in Luxembourg on 13th October 2014. It has been the occasion for Commissioner Damanaki to look back at the successful past years during which the new Common Fisheries Policy came into force, thanks to the good cooperation between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council.
During this meeting of the EU Fisheries Ministers, a compromise was reached over the Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2015. Although the initial proposal of the Commission was more ambitious in terms of reaching Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), Commissioner Damanaki expressed, during the Press conference, her satisfaction about the compromise, pointing out that regionalisation works. She further underlined that from 4 stocks fished at MSY level today, 6 stocks will be fished at MSY in 2015.
At Commissioner Damanaki’s initiative, the impact of the Russian trade ban on European fisheries was also put on the agenda and Member States agreed to increase possibility of banking up to 25% of fishing quotas to next year, 2015 to support EU fishermen.
Ministers also exchanged views on the ICCAT Annual meeting and the state of the tuna stocks, the annual consultations between EU and Norway for 2015, as well as the detention of a Lithuanian vessel by Russian border guards.
Watch the recorded press conference here.
