COVID-19 Crisis Response: Increased Interannual Quota Flexibility Is Risky And Unnecessary

Environmental NGOs oppose increasing EU interannual quota flexibility from 10% to 25% to mitigate COVID-19 impacts, arguing it would lead to overfishing and market instability. They contend that existing support measures are sufficient and that increasing quotas beyond scientific advice is biologically and economically unsound.

• Increasing interannual quota flexibility from 10% to 25% would likely lead to overfishing because any underuse of Total Allowable Catch (TAC) in one year is already factored into subsequent stock assessments and scientific advice as abundance improves.
• The proposal to increase flexibility is deemed unsustainable and illegal, as it contradicts the 10% limit specified in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) Basic Regulation and ignores the fact that a third of assessed EU fish stocks remain outside safe biological limits.
• From an economic perspective, increasing quota flexibility could cause fish prices to crash in 2021 due to a surge in landings and excess supply, particularly for fresh catches intended for the HORECA sector which faced lockdowns.
• The document asserts that further quota flexibility is unnecessary because existing COVID-19 mitigation measures are already in place, including financial compensations for aquaculture farmers, support for the cessation of fishing activities, and flexible reallocation of European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) resources.

APA

ClientEarth (2020). COVID-19 Crisis Response: Increased Interannual Quota Flexibility Is Risky And Unnecessary. https://www.clientearth.org/media/r5jbzgu5/201119-joint-ngo-briefing-on-risks-of-increasing-interannual-quota-flexibility-in-light-of-the-covid-19-crisis.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. COVID-19 Crisis Response: Increased Interannual Quota Flexibility Is Risky And Unnecessary. 2020. https://www.clientearth.org/media/r5jbzgu5/201119-joint-ngo-briefing-on-risks-of-increasing-interannual-quota-flexibility-in-light-of-the-covid-19-crisis.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=COVID-19 Crisis Response: Increased Interannual Quota Flexibility Is Risky And Unnecessary |date=1 November 2020 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/r5jbzgu5/201119-joint-ngo-briefing-on-risks-of-increasing-interannual-quota-flexibility-in-light-of-the-covid-19-crisis.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2020covid19, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{COVID-19 Crisis Response: Increased Interannual Quota Flexibility Is Risky And Unnecessary}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/r5jbzgu5/201119-joint-ngo-briefing-on-risks-of-increasing-interannual-quota-flexibility-in-light-of-the-covid-19-crisis.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }