The Commission’s proposal for 2027 fishing quotas in the Atlantic, Kattegat and Skagerrak cuts catch limits for southern hake and red seabream while raising them for Iberian anglerfish, according to reporting published on 5 November 2026. The proposal covers 11 EU-managed stocks and rests on advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which gave maximum sustainable yield advice for six stocks and precautionary advice for five.

The sharpest reduction falls on red seabream in Iberian waters, where the Commission proposes a 35% cut. Southern hake would fall by 20% as the proposal moves the stock toward maximum sustainable yield, and year-to-year variation stays capped at 20% under the Western Waters Multiannual Plan. Sole in the Bay of Biscay would drop by 15% under the 2027 fishing quotas, which is steeper than the 9% fall that pure maximum sustainable yield advice would imply.

Some stocks do better in the 2027 fishing quotas. Anglerfish in Iberian waters would gain 22% and Iberian horse mackerel 6%, while Kattegat plaice and undulate ray in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian waters are rolled over. The seabass ceiling for the Bay of Biscay stays at 3,884 tonnes, and the six-month eel closure and the ban on recreational eel fishing in the north-east Atlantic remain in place.

Several entries carry no figure at all. Cod in the Kattegat, Iberian megrims, Norway lobster in several areas, roundnose grenadier and Bay of Biscay anchovy are marked as awaiting scientific advice. Those gaps mean the 2027 fishing quotas for these stocks will be settled only after the Commission updates its text through non-papers, so fleets cannot yet plan their year.

The Atlantic package is one of three. The Commission proposed Baltic Sea limits in August, with a 49% rise for central Baltic herring and a 44% rise for sprat, but deep by-catch cuts of 88% for western Baltic cod and 51% for eastern Baltic cod. Ministers planned to reach political agreement on the Baltic file on 26 and 27 October, with formal adoption due in November, and the outcome was not confirmed in the sources reviewed. The Mediterranean and Black Sea proposal of 16 September sets no percentage changes and mostly carries forward existing management plans.

For ministers, the arithmetic is political. Spanish and Portuguese fleets would absorb the seabream and hake cuts, while French and Spanish sardine fishers keep national quota-setting powers. Ministers are expected to decide on the Atlantic and Mediterranean proposals at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 14 and 15 December 2026, and the regulations are meant to apply from 1 January 2027. Whether governments accept the Commission’s science-led cuts or soften them will show how binding the 2027 fishing quotas really are, and how far the Western Waters plan limits the room for compromise.