A EUROPEAN uNION commitment to ban fishing discards is a step forward, Environment Secre- tary Richard Lochhead has said.
It follows a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers in Luxembourg, which agreed on a way forward for reforming the Common Fisheries Policy.
The council hopes to ban the discarding of fish such as mackerel and herring by January 1, 2014. Banning the discard of whitefish such as cod, haddock, plaice and sole will be phased in a year after that and will be fully in place by January 1, 2018, under the proposals.
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