Sittings · Document

Adopted text 2026-09-15

General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM): fishing in the GFCM Agreement area

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Parliament's position at first reading amends Regulation (EU) 2023/2124, which implements GFCM recommendations for fishing in the GFCM Agreement area. It adds rules on European eel traceability, fleet capacity limits, temporal closures, vessel monitoring, reporting deadlines and landing points for several Mediterranean and Black Sea stocks. It sets up international joint inspection and surveillance schemes in the Ionian Sea, Strait of Sicily, Adriatic Sea and Mediterranean Sea, with rules on inspections and infringements. It introduces catch documentation schemes for red coral and turbot, minimum rules for recreational fisheries, transhipment rules and measures on seabirds, sea turtles, cetaceans and elasmobranchs. It establishes or updates fisheries restricted areas, including in the Gulf of Lion, Strait of Sicily and Jabuka/Pomo Pit, and bans certain fishing there. It empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts to implement future GFCM amendments and gives it implementing powers for cooperation with the GFCM Secretariat and certain reports.

Key points

  1. The regulation applies to fishing activities catching European eel in all Mediterranean waters, including freshwaters and transitional and brackish waters.
  2. Member States must set up a traceability system for eel landings, sales and exports and keep a list of authorised auction halls and first buyers.
  3. Member States must ensure fleet capacity for demersal trawls targeting key stocks does not exceed reference levels in gross tonnage, engine power and number of vessels.
  4. Bottom trawlers targeting giant red shrimp and blue and red shrimp spawning aggregations must stop fishing for 30 consecutive days between March and December each year.
  5. Vessels above 12 metres in length overall must carry a satellite-based vessel monitoring system, with a derogation for some vessels under 15 metres until 8 January 2026.
  6. Member States must adopt fisheries management measures or national management plans for several stocks and send them to the Commission by 15 April each year.
  7. International joint inspection and surveillance schemes are set up for waters outside national jurisdiction in the Ionian Sea, Strait of Sicily, Adriatic Sea and Mediterranean Sea.
  8. Inspectors must follow rules on notification, pennants, team size, identity cards, reports and language, and infringements trigger notification and port investigation within 72 hours.
  9. Member States must implement a paper-based red coral catch documentation scheme and a paper-based turbot catch documentation scheme along the supply chain.
  10. Minimum rules for recreational fisheries in the Mediterranean ban sale of catches, certain gear and practices, and require licensing or registration schemes and controls.
  11. Transhipments at sea outside Union waters are prohibited except in case of force majeure, and port transhipments require authorisation and declarations.
  12. Fisheries restricted areas are established or updated, including in the Gulf of Lion, Strait of Sicily and Jabuka/Pomo Pit, with bans on bottom trawling and other demersal fishing.

Who is affected

  • Union fishing vessels and operators in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, who must follow new catch, gear, reporting and landing rules.
  • Member States, which must set up traceability systems, designate landing points, report data and adopt management plans.
  • Recreational fishers in the Mediterranean, who face licensing, gear and catch prohibitions.
  • Vessels involved in transhipment, which need authorisation and must submit declarations.
  • The Commission, which receives delegated and implementing powers and must transmit information to the GFCM Secretariat.

Figures and deadlines

  • FADs must be exclusively constructed with biodegradable materials from 15 August 2027.
  • Vessels under 15 metres in length overall may operate without a vessel monitoring system until 8 January 2026 under conditions.
  • Member States must communicate data on fattening activities by 15 December each year; the Commission transmits by 31 December.
  • Bottom trawlers targeting giant red shrimp and blue and red shrimp must stop fishing for 30 consecutive days between March and December each year.
  • Fishing with bottom longlines, gillnets and trammel nets targeting European hake spawning aggregations must stop for 30 consecutive days between March and April each year.
  • From 1 July until 30 September each year, bottom trawling is not allowed between the coast and the 200 m depth isobath in GSA 14 (Gulf of Gabès).
  • Temporal closures for small pelagics must last no less than 30 successive days per fleet segment, or 15 days for small fleets, and spatial closures no less than 9 months covering 30% of certain waters.
  • Temporal closures for blackspot seabream must last no less than 60 successive days per fleet segment, from January to March each year.

Legal basis: Article 43(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text and ¶ links to the paragraph it rests on. Check the text itself before relying on it.