European Union and the United Kingdom - fisheries consultations: written record 2024

Non-quota stocks

a) The Parties agreed not to apply the tonnages provided for in Article 2(1)(b) of Annex 38 to the TCA in 2024, but will continue to closely monitor non-quota stocks fished by each Party in the waters of the other Party. The Parties agreed that in the event that either Party reaches 80% of its total before the end of 2024, the Parties will meet and consider next steps.

b) For the purposes of monitoring landings of non-quota species and in line with the Parties’ obligations under Article 507 of the TCA (data-sharing), the Parties agreed to continue exchanging landings data (for each Party’s vessels from the EEZ and territorial waters of the other Party, and at a species level) at monthly intervals on or before the 25th day of each calendar month, covering the previous calendar month.

c) The Delegations reiterated the commitment made in paragraph 12(c) of the 2023 Written Record to ensure the robustness of the landings data exchanged and recognised again the importance of data transparency. Landings data for 2022 and provisional landings data for the period from 1 January 2023 to 30 September 2023 is set out in Annex 3, outlining aggregate total landings for non-quota species. Overall, in 2022 the EU landings from UK waters comprised a total of 195 non-quota species and the UK landings from EU waters comprised a total of 56 non-quota species.

d) The Parties will update the data quarterly in 2024 to cover the period 1 October to 31 December 2023 and subsequently the period 1 January to 30 September 2024 and attach it to either an appropriate Written Record or minutes of the SCF. The Delegations recognised the importance of data transparency and agreed to discuss this further in the SCF.

e) Seabass:

i) The Delegations discussed measures for seabass and agreed to roll over arrangements in place during 2023.

ii) The Delegations recalled the commitment made in the Written Record for 2021 paragraph 13(f)(ii) to introduce catch reporting for commercial shore-based netting. The Parties agreed to discuss and update this commitment in the SCF as a priority.

iii) The Parties agreed to discuss in the next SCF meeting progress on the joint request to update the sea bass catch allocation tool.