AUTHORS: IEEP

On 6 May 2003, the Commission finally released its proposal for a long-term recovery plan for cod. The proposal covers a number of stocks in EU waters that are threatened with collapse. Measures include a combination of low catch limits, fishing effort limitations, and specific control and monitoring rules to ensure implementation. The proposed recovery plan would replace the temporary measures previously introduced by the Commission.

In the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) basic Regulation (2371/2002), recovery plans are among the main instruments for achieving conservation and sustainability, taking a long-term approach to the management of stocks and applying the precautionary approach. As the first recovery plan to be tabled, therefore, this proposal is being widely promoted as the first real test of the new CFP.