The Fisheries Committee in the European Parliament today decided to postpone the distribution of the reports in the CFP package.

The attendance was high today at the first Fisheries Committee meeting after summer. On the agenda: approval of the allocation of reports adopted at the coordinators’ meeting of 13 July – i.e. a decision on whether three political groups should get control over all six reports in the CFP package.

Preempting the heated debate that might have taken place if EPP, ECR and ALDE had defended their deal despite protests, EPP coordinator Patrão Neves proposed that the allocation of reports should be postponed until the next coordinators meeting on 19 September.

After a short discussion, the Committee agreed on this. The decision of 13 July is therefore effectively cancelled, even though it has not been formally repealed.

The discussion of how to allocate the reports will now restart. The Fisheries Committee decided that the coordinators of the groups shall meet informally during next Strasbourg session to discuss solutions.

Meanwhile, the reports in the CFP package stand without rapporteurs and the Parliament’s work with the fisheries reform cannot start yet.

Axel Naver

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