Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Added43. Strongly condemns the growing presence of Russia’s shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea, with operations that bypass key regulatory standards, increasing the risk of oil spills and other environmental hazards; stresses the potential harm to marine ecosystems, local fisheries and human health; calls on the Commission to explore further measures to combat Russia’s shadow fleet, especially in the Baltic Sea region; calls for enhanced regional cooperation and stricter enforcement to mitigate these risks and protect the Baltic’s marine resources; highlights the importance of ensuring the full enforcement of sanctions against Russia;

Legal changes

Change 9

Removed16. Urges the Commission to initiate a revision of the Baltic MAP Regulation to include ecosystem reference points (ERPs) defining a ‘safe operating space’ that integrates productivity, trophic relationships, biodiversity, habitat impacts and environmental capacity and provides safeguards limiting overly optimistic single-stock advice; stresses that the revision include environmental response mechanisms that trigger management action requiring reduced fishing pressure across all stocks to protect the entire food web if ERPs are signalling overall ecosystem productivity decreases;

Added44. Highlights the urgent need to do more in terms of holistic policy coordination as well as continued and accelerated progress in implementation of legislation of other policy areas in order to avoid relying solely on fisheries measures and preventing further socio-economic decline of coastal communities; notes the efforts that have been made within the context of the ‘Our Baltic’ conferences; encourages further progress towards concrete results;

Removed17. Calls on the Commission to create a Baltic Sea ecosystem management group integrating HELCOM and ICES expertise, and to establish a permanent stakeholder advisory platform consisting primarily of local actors in coastal communities such as commercial fishers, recreational fishers, tourism stakeholders, non-governmental organisations and local authorities, to provide input to TAC decisions and other measures;

Added45. Urges the Commission to initiate an evaluation and possible revision of the Baltic MAP Regulation with a view to improving its clarity, coherence and practical application, assessing its performance with regard to environmental and socio-economic aspects; stresses further the importance of ensuring that any possible future adjustment of the framework remains simple, science-based and workable for the sector;

Removed18. Calls on the Commission to clarify and set rules for acceptable levels of risk and time frames in relation to commitments to rebuild stocks, restore nature and uphold healthy ecosystems;

Added46. Calls on the Commission, within a possible revision of the Baltic MAP Regulation, to assess and, where needed, propose the inclusion of salmon and trout stocks as specific stocks to be covered by the scope of the regulation as regards bycatch;

Removed19. Calls on the Commission and the Council to consider legally binding rules for actions to be taken automatically when stocks fall below trigger values set in accordance with the precautionary approach, aligning the EU with better managed regions such as those of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States;

Added47. Expresses concerns that the added value in terms of regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea has been low, considering that the MAP has mostly consolidated pre-existing or already initiated avenues for cooperation; notes that due to slow processes and increased bureaucracy accompanying such initiatives, relatively few joint recommendations by Member States have been initiated, leading to a worrying signal that regionalisation provisions of the EU fisheries rules are not being used to adapt management measures to the specificities of the Baltic Sea; highlights the need for regional cooperation between the Baltic countries, including all stakeholders;

Removed20. Calls on the Commission and the Council to reintroduce the ban on fisheries for non-human consumption that was in place until 1995, when exceptions were originally only allowed ‘provided that such fishery does not entail risks of irreversible ecological damage’;

Added48. Stresses that effective Baltic Sea management must be built on trust, dialogue and regional cooperation between Member States, all stakeholders, regional bodies such as HELCOM, and coastal communities to promote practical solutions and knowledge exchange;

Removed21. Calls on the Commission and the Council to propose a moratorium on industrial trawling and halting all bottom trawling in coastal and shallow zones and in all types of marine protected areas until such legal rules and criteria are developed;

Added49. Calls for a new, regionally adapted approach to the management of risk;

Added50. Calls for the rules in the MAP to be clarified to make year-to-year flexibility prohibited for stocks below the current Btrigger conservation reference point of the Baltic Sea MAP as currently agreed by the Council;

Added51. Calls on the Commission to strengthen science-based and proportionate management measures for salmon in the Baltic Sea, ensuring that the ecosystem impacts of herring, sprat and cod fisheries on salmon are properly understood and addressed; urges enhanced monitoring and research to support sustainable salmon management;

Added52. Emphasises that fisheries management in the EU should be based on European experience, science and regional realities; calls on the Commission to propose regionally adapted rules for the Baltic Sea for actions to be taken automatically when stocks fall below trigger values set in accordance with the precautionary approach, and reiterates that MSY management should be complemented where applicable by measures to differentiate catches according to size and age in the first place; considers that inspiration could be drawn from management practices in other regions such as those of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, while ensuring consistency with the EU legal framework;

Added53. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen regional cooperation in line with Article 18 of the CFP;

Added54. Calls for concrete and effective measures ensuring that fish caught in the Baltic Sea are increasingly directed towards direct human consumption, to promote and incentivise local food supply chains;

Added55. Notes that some Member States in the Baltic Sea region such as Germany and Sweden have introduced national measures to restrict or prohibit bottom trawling in certain marine areas;

Added56. Calls on the Commission and the Member States for the Baltic Sea to propose halting trawling for fish meal and fish oil during a rebuilding phase, and limiting extractive activities in MPAs; recognises that approaches differ across the Union in the light of specific ecological, legal and socioeconomic contexts; encourages the Member States to continue developing proportionate, sciencebased solutions in cooperation with stakeholders, in particular the fishing sector and coastal communities, to improve marine protection while ensuring the viability of the EU fisheries sector through a just transition;

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57. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.