The European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries (PECH) voted on Monday, October 12, to call for a targeted revision of the EU's Western Mediterranean demersal fisheries plan, including a 20 per cent cap on annual reductions in fishing days.
The own-initiative report, drafted by rapporteur Carmen Crespo Díaz, was adopted by 21 votes to four with no abstentions.
It asks the European Commission to submit a legislative proposal amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1022 by December 1. The existing plan remains in force unless amended through the EU legislative process.
The committee proposes allowing up to 10 per cent of unused fishing effort to be carried over between calendar years. The fishing-day cap would remain contingent on the best available scientific advice and would take account of profitability thresholds for individual fleet segments.
The report also seeks to stop effort being set solely by the most vulnerable stock in mixed fisheries, and to have decision-making take account of business viability and food security, as well as employment and fishers' incomes. For red shrimp, it calls for the quota to be removed while fishing-day limits are retained.
On controls, the committee wants the European Fisheries Control Agency to strengthen monitoring of non-EU-flagged fleets and wants tighter import checks targeting products associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. It noted that only 13 of 20 stocks in the latest assessment could be analytically assessed.
Europêche President Javier Garat welcomed the vote.
"The plan's current framework and implementation have contributed to declining employment in the sector," Garat said.
The plan, adopted in 2019, covers demersal fisheries off France, Italy and Spain. The committee said trawling effort fell by more than 40 per cent between 2020 and 2024. In December 2025, the Council of the EU kept trawler effort for 2026 at the 2025 level.
