Discard plan in the Baltic Sea

The European Parliament rejected, by 131 votes to 502 with 77 abstentions, a draft Parliamentary resolution aiming to object to Commission Delegated Regulation of 20 October 2014 establishing a discard plan in the Baltic Sea.

In implementing Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Common Fisheries Policy, the Commissions draft delegated regulation consists of measures facilitating the implementation of landing obligations.

The draft regulation specifies the species and fisheries to which specific measures would apply, exemptions based on high survivability and it fixes the minimum conservation reference size for cod.

The ECR group, which submitted the draft resolution, felt that reducing the minimum conservation reference size for cod in the Baltic Sea from 38 cm to 35, as proposed by the Commission, could potentially undermine the reproductive capacity of the stock, and also incentivised the creation of a market for juvenile fish and removed an important incentive to make improvements as regards the use of more selective gears.