Today, the Committee on Fisheries voted in favour of the new Control Regulation.

ECR shadow rapporteur Bert-Jan Ruissen is happy with the result. “One of the most controversial items was the Commission’s proposal to install mandatory CCTV on board of fishing vessels. In our view, that would be a massive infringement of the fishermen’s privacy. We managed to get an ECR amendment adopted which states that the introduction of CCTV has to be on a voluntary basis.”

Besides this, CCTV can also be applied as a temporary sanction in case of two or more serious infringements of the landing obligation.

More than a thousand amendments have been tabled on this file. Mr. Ruissen spent the past few months negotiating compromises with the other political groups. “On the issue of weighing, we have reached a very good compromise. We have made sure that fishermen have the possibility to weigh their products on board and at the auction, besides weighing at landing. This is absolutely necessary to ensure the quality and hygiene of the fish.”