The environmental criteria have little weight in the management of fishing opportunities by the Member States in the European Union (EU), only used by 11, excluding Portugal, according to a study requested by the European Parliament (EP).
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29/08/2026
by
Lusa
O report by the Thematic Department of Regional Development, Agriculture and Fisheries, a technical and scientific research unit of the EP – highlights that the most used and common category at 22 Coastal Member States for the distribution of quotas is the historical register.
In Portugal, where they are subject to quota as a percentage of the total fleet activity 39% of the species caught, three categories of criteria are used: historical, economic and social registers and others, such as catch capacity and compliance.
“ Environmental criteria remain limited in scope and ambition. Although 11 Member States apply some kind of environmental criterion, in almost all cases it takes the form of a binary distinction based on the use of passive fishing gear”, reads the report.
The study also highlights that none of the 27 “uses allocation criteria based on fishing techniques or caught areas, and no Member State assesses environmental performance over a continuous scale”.
The study recommends, inter alia, that the European Commission and the EP support “research focused on comparative analyses of systems with different concepts within the same cross-border fisheries”, among other things.
Research on the distribution of fishing opportunities in the EU will be discussed on Monday by MEPs on the EP's Fisheries Committee, which includes as permanent members the Portuguese Paulo Nascimento Cabral (PSD and Vice-President of the Committee), André Franqueira Rodrigues (PS) and António Tânger Corrêa (Enough).