Luxembourg: EU fisheries ministers meeting in Luxembourg on 26 and 27 October 2026 will agree the position that Brussels takes into the annual talks on ICCAT bluefin tuna and other Atlantic stocks. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas holds its annual meeting from 16 to 23 November 2026 in Vilamoura, Portugal, and the Council text will frame what the Commission can offer and demand there.

The ministers set the line at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, where the Irish presidency chairs the discussion. The Baltic Sea quota talks share the agenda, but the ICCAT item looks ahead to a different table, one where the EU negotiates with dozens of other contracting parties rather than with its own Member States.

Last year’s ICCAT bluefin tuna decision shows what is at stake. At the 2025 session, held from 17 to 24 November with 52 contracting parties, ICCAT agreed a significant increase in the total allowable catch for eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna, to 48,403 tonnes per year for the next three years. The EU share of that stock rose by 3,661 tonnes to 25,164 tonnes per year, an increase of about 17 percent and roughly half of the total.

That outcome also contained limits. The EU proposed a lower catch limit for southern shortfin mako sharks and ICCAT agreed to allow fewer of them to be caught. Yet the EU proposal to raise the bigeye tuna catch limit to match scientific advice did not win agreement, and for yellowfin tuna the parties backed only a process to discuss how to allocate the limit and deal with overshooting. The new Council position will show how hard Member States want to push on those unfinished files.

Because the ICCAT bluefin tuna total is fixed for three years, the 2026 meeting is less about the headline quota and more about the details that determine who can fish. Some Member States will want stable access for their fleets, while others without a historic share will want a way into the fishery. Any EU position has to balance those claims without weakening the unity that gives the Union weight in the room.

Conservation arguments will run alongside the commercial ones in the ICCAT bluefin tuna debate. Scientific advice underpins every ICCAT decision, and the EU has used it to defend caps on sharks and to challenge limits it sees as too generous or too low. The ministers’ text will therefore carry both economic and environmental messages.

The Council decision is only the first step. After ministers sign off, the Commission negotiates in Vilamoura on behalf of the Union, and the final outcome will return to Member States for implementation in their quota rules. For fishers and processors, the ICCAT bluefin tuna talks in November will decide how stable the next year of planning can be.