23.

Stresses that while improving selectivity must continue to be a high priority, implementing the landing obligation requires a cross-sectoral approach and clear incentives to be devised to encourage best-practice mitigation; recommends the following accompanying measures and management tools: (a) further use and optimisation of quota-based tools, in line with the principles of the CFP and provided that effective control measures are put in place, such as: — the distribution of quotas in line with the expected catch composition; — adjustments through quota swaps with other Member States and neighbouring third countries with which the EU shares stocks, carried out in a flexible and efficient manner to avoid under-utilisation of quotas by, for example, moving towards permanent and not only annually renewable mechanisms after the setting of TACs and quotas, in line with the best available scientific advice; — allocation of estimated discard share of quotas for fishers, especially those operating on a small scale, that opt to use more selective gear; (b) studying the feasibility of implementing a marine spatial planning and area-based management approach in order to avoid discards by guiding fishers to areas where undersized fish are less likely to be present, while ensuring that such measures do not result in an extensive non-use of other commercially sized species; (c) providing greater flexibility to allow fishers to choose gear solutions, coupled with greater responsibility for documentation (full documentation of catches); (d) providing flexible mechanisms for the approval of new types of selective gear in order to incentivise stakeholders to apply for and carry out pilot projects; (e) granting exclusive access to fishing locations or time periods in order to encourage selectivity; (f) adopting strategies to make the best use of unwanted catches for purposes other than human consumption without creating a demand for undersized catches and provided that it is feasible for fishers in economic and operational terms; (g) developing a discard atlas as an inventory of unwanted catches in the different fisheries and areas in order to better develop regional by-catch plans, involving Member States and the fishing industry and supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund; (h) using and developing voluntary and incentive-linked artificial intelligence tools to increase selectivity and control and improve species identification, in collaboration with the fishing sector and Member States’ authorities; (i) progressively introducing the requirement for compliance with the same discard policy for imports of fisheries products from third countries in order to eliminate the comparative disadvantage and unfair competition for the European fleet, while moving towards better protection of global fisheries resources; (j) renewing the Commission’s obligation to report annually on the state of play of the CFP and the implementation of the landing obligation, and providing more information on its implementation, including the socioeconomic impact and, among other aspects, fuel consumption, storage space, the effects on safety and working conditions on board fishing vessels, the reduction of discards and unwanted catches, and the improved status of stocks (MSY);