Chairs’ joint report of the February 2022 consultations on quota-sharing arrangements for North-East Atlantic mackerel, Atlanto-Scandian or Norwegian spring spawning herring, and blue whiting

1. Heads of delegations from the European Union, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom met in Copenhagen from 7 to 10 February 2022. They consulted on new quota-sharing arrangements for the stocks of North-East Atlantic mackerel, Atlanto-Scandian or Norwegian spring spawning herring, and blue whiting.

2. They reviewed progress to date on arriving at new arrangements and received updates on the status of technical reports on the geographical distribution of each stock. They affirmed their ambition to agree in the course of 2022 long-term, comprehensive, and inclusive quota-sharing arrangements on each stock.

3. Noting the need to build momentum in the negotiations, they agreed to continue consultations on these stocks in 3 meetings in London from 14 to 16 March 2022.

4. They agreed that the focus of the next set of consultations on North-East Atlantic mackerel would be to review the report provided by the parties’ scientists on the geographical distribution of the stock of mackerel. That report had been commissioned in the “Agreed Record of conclusions of fisheries consultations on the management of mackerel in the North-East Atlantic”, signed on 27 October 2021. They also agreed that the focus of the blue whiting and Atlanto-Scandian or Norwegian Spring Spawning herring meetings would be on progressing their discussions for an agreed sharing arrangement model. Full delegations would be invited to attend each meeting.

Colin Faulkner, Chair of the consultations on North-East Atlantic mackerel

Herluf Sigvaldsson, Chair of the consultations on blue whiting

Will Francis, Chair of the consultations on Atlanto-Scandian or Norwegian Spring Spawning herring

10 February 2022