Ulrike Rodust wants Member States to establish protected areas where no fishing is allowed, in at least 10 per cent of their waters. This proposal met strong reactions from UK MEPs Ian Hudghton (Greens/EFA), Struan Stevenson (ECR) and Diane Dodds (NI) who said they could not accept banning fishing in such a large part of the .
Planning for the negotiations with Council
Several MEPs looked ahead and said that the European Parliament needs to adopt a strong position on the basic regulation before negotiations with the Council later in the reform process.
Chris Davies (ALDE) welcomed Rodusts proposal to achieve maximum sustainable yield (MSY) by 2015 and forcing Council to set quotas according to the fishing mortality for stocks that are without a multiannual management plan. He further noted that ministers in a recent Council meeting wanted to avoid commitments on MSY. He said that the European Parliament needs a strong position on MSY, because the Parliament will need to compromise with the Council later.
Ral Romeva i Rueda (Greens/EFA) said that the ministers in Council only seem to be influenced by some segments of the fishing industry, and that the European Parliament has an obligation to listen to other stakeholders, such as consumer groups, environmental NGOs and other civil society groups.
