Press Release: Fishing opportunities in EU waters in 2012: getting the balance right to reduce overfishing

The European Commission has published its report on progress achieved in the Common Fisheries Policy over the last few years and its suggestions for fishing opportunities in EU waters in 2012. The document sets out how the Commission intends to act on the scientific advice it receives about the state of fish stocks when proposing catch limits and quotas for next year for.

The latest figures show that the state of fish stocks in European waters is slowly improving, but sufficient scientific data is still missing for the majority of the stocks, mainly due to inadequate reporting by Member States. The Commission will therefore be using a new method for setting fishing limits, notably cutting levels where insufficient data exist. The Commission's ideas will now be the object of a wide consultation over the summer and input will feed into its proposals for fishing opportunities for next year which will be adopted in the autumn.

European Commission: Speech/11/377: Maria Damanaki: "Consultation on Fishing Opportunities for 2012" http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/377&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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