A compromise deal to shake up Europe's controversial fisheries policy has been hailed by ministers as a significant step forward, but conservationists are not convinced.
It now goes back to the European Parliament for approval. But the proposals agreed by Europe's fisheries ministers yesterday do not include the blanket ban proposed by the MEPs in February on "discards" – the practice of dumping dead fish back in the sea because of Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) rules that restrict the size of landed catches under a complex system of quotas. Instead, the agreement means that from 2015, only dumping of pelagic fish – those living near the surface – would be prohibited.
Ministers also agreed that more of the day-to-day management of fisheries is to be devolved from Brussels to local levels.
Scotland's Fishing Minister Richard Lochhead said the finish line on CFP reform was close. He said: "It was very important to ensure the council [of ministers] stuck with the agreed general approach on regionalisation, ensuring high-level management plans are developed which leave enough flexibility for the detail to be agreed local to each fishery. Without such a regional approach, the ambitious objectives we are setting ourselves will prove very difficult to achieve.
"The other key plank in discussions was ensuring that after securing a historic agreement in February to finally end the dreadful practice of discards, we worked out the details of how the discard ban will operate."
But Helen McLachlan, fisheries programme manager at WWF Scotland, said: "The devil is in the detail, but in this case it's the lack of detail, as fisheries ministers decided on a legally neutral text with few binding timelines and concrete measures."
l Scots mackerel processors have welcomed the Marine Conservation Society upgrading British and European mackerel to a yellow "three" rating, meaning people can eat it occasionally without endangering the species.
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