The EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) needs radical reform to cut fishing to sustainable stock levels, end discards, and use better long-term planning based on reliable scientific data, said Fisheries Committee MEPs on Tuesday. Overfishing is widely seen as the worst failure of the current CFP, dating from 2002. The new one is to take effect in 2014.

Stadig flere dyr i EU transporteres under betingelser, der ikke lever op til standarderne. De eksisterende regler skal derfor håndhæves bedre, kontrollen skærpes og lovovertrædere skal pålægges skrappere sanktioner, siger MEPerne i en betænkning vedtaget onsdag. For at undgå lange rejser til slagteriet, bør EU fremme brugen af lokale slagterier og overveje en maks.-grænse på 8 timers transporttid, tilføjer de.

MEPs removed exceptions to the EU ban on "shark finning" - i.e. cutting off fins and dumping carcasses at sea - in a vote on Thursday. These exceptions required fishermen to keep carcases on board, but they made the ban difficult to enforce, as by allowing boats to land fins and bodies at different ports, they made it hard to match fin and carcass counts.

On Thursday MEPs endorsed legal measures to protect Baltic salmon stocks, but postponed a vote on technical conservation measures until the Council unblocks long-term fisheries management plans. In a separate vote, Parliament also called for the eradication of illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries worldwide.

Parliament's evaluation letters concerning the possible appointment of Tonio Borg to take up the European Commission health and consumers portfolio are now available on the EP website in English, French and German. They can be found in the "subject files" relating to the hearing process (see links to the right).

More than a year after the Commission unveiled its proposals for new legislation, and following passionate debates, public hearings and expert workshops, Parliament's agriculture committee is preparing to vote on four core regulations that should pave the way for a fairer, greener, more efficient and more competitive EU farm policy.

EU member states must do more to improve the welfare of animals in transit by enforcing rules, checking journey times and imposing dissuasive penalties on offenders, say Agriculture Committee MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday. To shorten journeys to abattoirs, the EU should also promote the use of local ones and consider an eight-hour, EU-wide limit on journey times, they add.

EU member states should stop issuing special permits to remove shark fins on board vessels, said Fisheries Committee MEPs on Wednesday. In a report on the external dimension of the common fisheries policy, MEPs urged that global efforts to combat illegal fishing be stepped up, and improvements made to agreements with third countries which allow EU vessels to fish in their waters.

Quotas for sugar beet producers must be prolonged to allow beet producers time to adapt to new market realities, and EU farm spending should be frozen in real terms for 2014-2020, said many Agriculture Committee MEPs in Tuesday's EU farm policy reform debate.

The time it takes to obtain an EU quality label for farm produce from a given geographical area, or produced in a traditional way, could be halved by a regulation endorsed by Parliament on Thursday. The new rules, agreed by EP Agriculture Committee MEPs and Council negotiators in June, would also introduce a new label for "mountain" products. Labels for island produce and farm gate sales may follow soon.