Overview

• The European Commission set out deep reductions for 2026, including plaice down 3% and salmon down 27% in the Baltic’s main basin, with salmon up 1% in the Gulf of Finland.
• The proposal would scrap the targeted western Baltic herring exemption for small boats, leaving only a bycatch allowance reduced to about 394 tonnes.
• Herring quotas would drop 62% in the Bothnian Bay and 17% in the Gulf of Riga, while allowed bycatches would fall sharply for herring in the western Baltic (-50%) and for cod in the west (-84%) and east (-63%).
• Quotas for herring and sprat in the central Baltic would remain unchanged under the draft.
• Fisheries Commissioner Costa Kadis cited collapsing stocks and a deteriorating ecosystem, and EU agriculture and fisheries ministers are due to take up the file starting with informal talks in Copenhagen from 7 September.