Conservation of fishery resources: protection of juveniles of marine organisms

The committee adopted the report by Ian HUDGHTON (Greens/EFA, UK) tabling four amendments to the proposal under the consultation procedure. Two of these were purely drafting amendments aimed at rectifying incorrect references in the Commission text. The other two sought to: - ensure that the Commission submits a proposal, to be decided on by the Council before 31 December 2003, containing detailed rules defining the conditions under which combinations of towed nets of more than one range of mesh size shall be used. The committee was opposed to these rules being drawn up using the commitology procedure, as the Commission had proposed, and therefore wanted to ensure proper legislative scrutiny of this important issue; - delete the provision whereby vessels fishing with the very smallest net sizes should continue to be allowed to retain undersized fish provided these are not sold for human consumption. �