After nightly negotiations in Luxembourg, the member states’ fisheries ministers agreed this morning on a settlement that means reduced fishing compared to 2023 – but not at all to the extent that the EU leadership proposed.
For herring and sturgeon, the commission wanted to remove all directed fishing during the next year and only allow the fish to be taken as bycatch, in other fisheries.
Now, however, the quotas will remain – albeit less than this year.
For the Gulf of Bothnia and the Bothnian Sea, this means, for example, a quota of 55,000 tonnes in 2024, compared to 80,000 this year. In the central Baltic Sea, the quota of 40,368 tonnes is landed, compared to just over 70,000 tonnes in 2023.
The minister worried
Minister of Rural Affairs Peter Kullgren (KD) was worried before the negotiations that the stop for targeted fishing would, among other things, affect deliveries to the sour stromming producers in Norrland.
– Sweden is prepared to have a very low fishing opportunity, as long as we protect the fishing that is for human consumption. I think that many people, not least along the Norrland coast, do not want to be part of the EU stepping in and deciding that we should not keep our surströmming, said Kullgren yesterday.