ZAGREB, November 13, 2018 – The European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a report which Croatian MEP Ruža Tomašić submitted on the Multiannual plan for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea and the fisheries exploiting those stocks, whereby measures for replenishing the stocks in the Adriatic are suggested, instead of the imposition of quotas for the catch of Adriatic fish as proposed by the European Commission, which would seriously affect the fishing industry in Croatia.
“I knew that it would be tough, but we have succeeded. The European Parliament has been the last defence line and our diligent work has halted the Commission’s harmful proposal that would have had a devastating effect on Croatia’s fisheries, the fish processing industry, tuna fisheries and coastal communities living off fisheries,” Tomašić said after her report was endorsed.
She explained that the imposed quota would have restricted the catch in the whole of the Adriatic Sea to 50,000 tonnes of small pelagic fish annually, whereas Croatia’s current catch is about 60,000 tonnes and the amount in the region now stands at 100,000 tonnes.
Another Croatian MEP, Ivan Jakovčić, endorsed Tomašić’s report and called on the EC to pursue a policy that would be beneficial to the Adriatic fishermen. He explained that the introduction of the quotas as proposed by the EC would have been detrimental to the blue growth in the Adriatic region.
Dubravka Šuica, also one Croatia’s 11 MEPs, reported that she supported Tomašić’s reports and that she had not endorsed the EC’s proposal for incorporating a set of measures into a multi-annual plan for the Adriatic Sea that would manage the fisheries in the Adriatic Sea based on the Biomass Escapement Strategy and a quota system.
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