After lengthy consultations over recent months, the European Union and Norway have struck a crucial long-term agreement on mackerel management in the North-East Atlantic, which provides both for stable quota shares and for agreed access arrangements for their respective fleets over a ten-year period. The mackerel stock is of critical importance to the EU and Norwegian fishing sectors alike, and the agreement thereon is especially significant when viewed against the background of numerous differences of opinion in the past. This agreement also forms an excellent basis for developing comprehensive mackerel management in the North-East Atlantic with other Coastal States, such as the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Furthermore, it will provide stability for the EU fleet in the coming years and boost flexibility in terms of both when and where fishing for this migratory stock can take place.
In addition, the EU and Norway have reached agreement on reciprocal fishing possibilities for 2010, thereby paving the way for an early resumption of the activities interrupted at the end of 2009. The volumes of fishing possibilities foreseen under this arrangement will remain at their 2009 levels and the EU has obtained additional access to cod in North Norway. Quotas for Norway of pelagic species (blue whiting, horse mackerel) in Western Waters have been reduced and a new incentive scheme to encourage a reduction in discards of cod has been introduced. This arrangement also fixes the levels of the TACs for the main stocks in the North Sea, including cod and haddock.
The EU believes that the agreements reached will cement further the already strong cooperative framework between the European Union and Norway in the fisheries sector and that they augur well for the future.
