The European Union has agreed with the United Kingdom and Norway, and bilaterally with Norway Valuable fishing opportunities for EU fleets until 2024 and provides a forecast for stocks in the Northeast Atlantic and North Sea. These agreements are important because reserves negotiated with third countries represent a large part of the EU’s interest reserves.
Virginijus Cinquevicius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries“The timely signature of these agreements will guarantee EU fishermen access to important waters and opportunities from January 2024. Despite the challenges, the successful and coordinated completion of this highly complex process demonstrates how cooperation between the EU, the UK and Norway can work. It will benefit fishing communities and our Ensure sustainable management of shared stocks.
EU – UK – Norway Agreement
The tripartite agreement between the European Union, Norway and the United Kingdom sets the jointly managed fishing stocks in the North Sea for 2024 at over 915 thousand tonnes, almost 415 thousand tonnes of cod, haddock, whiting, plaice and herring in the EU quota.
The agreement also includes an increase in GDP set below the maximum fixed yield to take into account precautionary considerations for the southern subsidiary. TACs were set to take into account interactions with cod below MSY advice for haddock and plaice, and below MSY advice for haddock and whiting.
The EU, UK and Norway continued to review the herring management model in 2024 and decided to establish TACs in line with the MSY.
They also agreed to maintain existing area closures and maintain measures to protect North Sea fish.
EU – Norway Agreements
In parallel, the EU and Norway concluded bilateral consultations on shared shares in the North Sea, Skagerrak and quota exchanges. Three bilateral agreements deal with the exchange of quotas, mutual access to each other’s fisheries and the setting of quotas in the Skagerrak and Kattegat.
Both parties guaranteed an ambitious balance of exchange of fishing opportunities with major economic benefits. In other shares, the EU will receive 9,983 tonnes of Arctic cod in 2024, while transferring 48,000 tonnes of blue whiting to Norway.
EU access to catch 15,107 tonnes of Atlantic-Scandinavian herring in Norwegian waters. At the same time, Norway gets access to EU waters to fish for 150,000 tonnes of blue whiting.
The European Union and Norway have decided to implement measures to reduce fishing mortality of western Baltic herring in the Skagerrak and the eastern North Sea, which mixes with North Sea herring. These measures include limiting catches in the Skagerrak.
The parties also signed a neighborhood agreement covering Swedish fishing in Norwegian waters of the North Sea.
Bilaterally and trilaterally agreed catch limits will be presented for incorporation into the 2024 Fishing Opportunities Regulation during the next EU Fisheries Council on 10-11 December.
The EU and Norway will hold a consultation on Panthallus in 2024, for which the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) scientific advice does not coincide with the calendar year.
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