Venus shells are “safe”: EU Parliament approves extension of derogation on minimum sizes for the Adriatic Sea

Brussels – All’s well that ends well for Italy’s Venus shells. The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee (PECH) today (16 October) approved the EU executive’s proposal to renew the current derogation on bivalve molluscs bred in the Adriatic Sea, which establishes minimum thresholds that are lower than those valid for other Member States due to the area’s specific environmental characteristics. Italian shell farmers, therefore, are allowed to continue marketing clams with a calibre of 22 millimetres instead of 25, as required by EU regulations. 

The issue has mainly involved MEPs from the Spanish
Partido Popular, who in recent weeks
 fought their Italian colleagues to try to block yet another five-year extension of the derogation, introduced back in 2016 and expiring on 31 December this year. From the ranks of the Populares comes PECH’s president, Carmen Crespo Díaz, who yesterday even attempted to cancel the vote from today’s agenda. 

In the end, following intense pressure from the Italian members of the committee, the vote proceeded as planned, concluding with 22 votes in favour and 3 against, thereby extending the exemption agreed in Rome until 2030. The vote was very tense—a parliamentary source told Eunews that “the climate was very heavy” and “feathers flew” between the members of ECH—but the Italian line prevailed, partly because several foreign MEPs were absent on purpose to be replaced by Italian colleagues.

The outcome of the vote was hailed as a victory by our entire political spectrum, from right to left. From the government, the Minister for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Francesco Lollobrigida, called it “excellent news for the fishermen of the Adriatic,” while from the Lega a press release signed by MEPs Anna Maria Cisint (member of PECH), Paolo Borchia, and Isabella Tovaglieri (the latter deputy members) speaks of a “victory of common sense” against the “short-sighted Brussels bureaucracy.” “Our fishermen are safe,” the joint note goes on to say. 

On the other side of the spectrum, the celebrations are wide-ranging, especially within the PD. “A balanced decision that holds together the protection of fishery resources and the safeguarding of jobs in our seas,” in the words of Giuseppe Lupo (member of the PECH) and Camilla Laureti, deputy leader of the Socialists in the chamber. For the Dems, the extension “represents a necessary adaptation to the specific environmental conditions of our seas, already affected by climate change and the presence of the blue crab,” critical factors in the alteration of Adriatic ecosystems, especially off the Veneto and Emilia-Romagna coasts—at least until the next extension.