The Minister for Agriculture, Jānis Dūklavs has presented in Brussels priorities of Latvia’s Presidency in fisheries

"We are living at the time when economic and the environmental interests do not always coincide. We therefore must make every effort to increase sustainability of the resources and competitiveness of the fisheries industry. Lessons learned during the recent economic crisis made us pay more attention to increasing of productivity and value added," emphasized the minister Jānis Dūklavs.

"Negotiations on fishing agreements, combatting illegal, unregistered and unregulated fishing, Russia's embargo and discussions with the United States on trade and investment have activated questions of international cooperation and global markets. The new and reformed Common Fisheries Policy has just entered into force, with a particular focus on ecosystem approach," the minister added.

The minister Jānis Dūklavs addressed the following topics in his presentation.

Multiannual management plan for Baltic Sea cod, Baltic herring and sprat stocks is the first multiannual fishing plan of the new generation. This file is essential for ensuring sustainability of the stocks and at the same time offers more predictability and certainty to the industry. The proposal is therefore on the top of the Presidency's priorities.

Proposal for Regulation on introduction of the landing obligation: the Latvian Presidency will be fully involved in the outstanding work on the new rules. The obligation to land some fish species entered into force on 1 January this year, but fishermen still have no clear rules on the application. The EU institutional agreement on this file should be completed as soon as possible.

External dimension of fisheries (sustainable fishing partnership agreements with third countries, negotiations with coastal states and representation in international organizations): the minister underlined the importance of fisheries agreements for a viable and competitive EU fishing fleet in high-seas. It is expected that the work on negotiations for agreements with Mauritania, Kiribati, Seychelles and other countries would be smoothly continued in the first half of 2015.