07/09/2006 - The European Commission this week proposed cutting quotas on cod, salmon and other Baltic Sea species, in some cases by up to 20 per cent.

The cuts, if approved by the bloc's legislators, with further increase the dependence of EU food processors on foreign supplies. It could also result in more production coming from aquaculture rather than wild fish stocks as governments face up to the fact that the world's oceans are being depleted at unsubstainable rates.

Proposed quota reductions for this year in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean fishing areas will make processors even more dependent on imports.

The EU already has one of the world's highest trade deficits in fish and fishery products. The poor state of certain EU fishery stocks and the reduction in annual catch quotas make the EU's processing sector more and more dependent on imports from third countries for supplies.

The cuts in the 2007 quotas for the Baltic Sea are part of a plan by the European Commission's programme to allow depleted stocks to regain some ground.

In making the proposal the Commission is going against the recommendation by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which has called for a complete closure of the eastern cod fishery until a long-term management plan has been adopted and has come into force.

Saying that such a drastic closure would undermine the fishery sectors in many countries, the Commission has proposed to gradually reduce quotas by 15 per cent over a period of years. On 24 July, the Commission adopted a multi-annual plan to rebuild and maintain cod stocks in the Baltic Sea. The Commission expects that the plan will come into force next year.

An overall increase is, however, proposed in herring and sprat catches and no change on the quota for plaice. The proposal is due to be discussed at the Fisheries Council meeting in October.

The proposed multi-annual plan for Baltic cod, proposed last July, will combine staged reductions in fishing mortality with increases in closed periods, and limits to the year-on-year variation in total allowable catches (TACs).

The proposed TAC for eastern cod has been set at 38,522 tonnes, compared with 45,339 tonnes this year. For western cod the TAC has been set at 24,140 tonnes, compared to 28,400 tonnes in 2006.

The proposed TAC for salmon in the main Baltic basin is reduced to 361,001 individual fish in 2007, compared to 451,260 this year.

The central Baltic herring stock shows encouraging signs of health, and the Commission therefore proposes to raise the TAC by 15 per cent to 133, 218 tonnes next year from the current 115,842 tonnes.

The Commission has also discussed the TACs and quotas and associated conditions with Russia within the framework of their new bilateral fisheries agreement expected to enter into force in the course of 2007.

The agreement is due to replace the International Baltic Sea Fisheries Commission (IBSFC) from which the EU withdrew as of the end of 2005, following the accession of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the EU.

In 2004, EU imports of fish and fishery products totaled