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REPORT (2024/2127(INI))

On the multiannual plan for the Baltic Sea and ways forward

A-10-2026-0121

Committee on Fisheries · Rapporteur: Isabella Lövin

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Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

Parliament's resolution on the Baltic Sea multiannual plan calls for urgent action to recover fish stocks, improve scientific advice, and address environmental pressures. It urges the Commission and Member States to use existing tools, consider recovery pauses, and support small-scale fisheries. It requests ecosystem-based advice from ICES, including precautionary buffers and consideration of environmental stressors. It calls for legal changes to the Baltic MAP, including possible inclusion of salmon and trout, and for measures against Russia's unsustainable fishing and shadow fleet.

Committee position. The Committee on Fisheries calls for urgent action to recover Baltic fish stocks, improve scientific advice, and revise the Baltic MAP Regulation.

Key points

  1. Calls on the Commission and Council to use all existing legal and management tools to prevent further decline of Baltic fish stocks.
  2. Urges a recovery and rebuilding phase for fish stocks, with remedial measures like suspending targeted fisheries, while avoiding harm to coastal communities.
  3. Calls for social and financial support, including temporary compensation and bridging aid, with clear separation from permanent cessation.
  4. Calls on the Council to set TACs aligned with the precautionary approach, considering ecosystem vulnerability and scientific uncertainty.
  5. Stresses the need for multiannual quotas based on best available science to provide stability for businesses and ecosystems.
  6. Calls for measures to prevent irreversible damage to herring and sprat, including recovery pauses until stocks recover.
  7. Highlights the importance of small-scale fisheries and calls for improving their socio-economic situation through quota allocations and investments.
  8. Urges the Commission to request ICES to develop ecosystem-based, multi-species advice and precautionary buffers for the Baltic.
  9. Calls for genetic mapping of commercially exploited species and improved data on age and size to support management.
  10. Requests a coordinated plan to address stressors like pollution and climate change, and investment in sewage treatment.
  11. Calls for management measures for great cormorants and grey seals, and an EU cormorant management plan.
  12. Urges action on dumped munitions, condemns Russia's fishing practices and shadow fleet, and calls for legal changes to the MAP.

Who is affected

  • Baltic Sea fish stocks, including cod, herring, sprat, salmon, and trout.
  • Small-scale coastal fisheries in the Baltic Sea region.
  • Baltic Sea Member States and the European Commission.
  • Russia, due to its fishing quotas and shadow fleet activities.

Figures and deadlines

  • 92 % of vessels in the Baltic Sea are small-scale coastal fisheries.
  • 8-10 million EU citizens engaged in recreational fisheries.
  • EUR 1.5 billion economic contribution from recreational fisheries in the Baltic.
  • 14 000 full-time equivalent jobs supported by recreational fisheries.

Legal basis: Article 3(3) TEU, Articles 4, 43(3) and 191 TFEU, and Article 37 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.