{"id":437856,"date":"2025-10-16T16:18:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T14:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/10\/16\/la-vongola-verace-e-salva-dalleurocamera-lok-alla-proroga-della-deroga-sulle-taglie-minime-per-ladriatico\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:51:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T14:51:52","slug":"venus-shells-are-safe-eu-parliament-approves-extension-of-derogation-on-minimum-sizes-for-the-adriatic-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/10\/16\/venus-shells-are-safe-eu-parliament-approves-extension-of-derogation-on-minimum-sizes-for-the-adriatic-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus shells are “safe”: EU Parliament approves extension of derogation on minimum sizes for the Adriatic Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – All’s well that ends well for Italy’s Venus shells<\/strong>. The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee (PECH<\/strong>) today (16 October) approved the EU executive’s proposal to renew<\/strong> the current derogation<\/strong> on bivalve molluscs bred in the Adriatic Sea<\/strong>, which establishes minimum thresholds<\/strong> 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<\/strong>, as required by EU regulations. <\/p>\n

The issue has mainly involved MEPs from the Spanish
\nPartido Popular<\/strong><\/strong>, who in recent weeks
\n fought<\/a> their Italian colleagues to try to block yet another five-year extension of the derogation<\/strong>, introduced <\/strong>back in 2016<\/strong> and expiring on 31 December this year. From the ranks of the Populares comes PECH’s president, Carmen Crespo D\u00edaz<\/strong>, who yesterday even attempted to cancel the vote from today’s agenda<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

In the end, following intense pressure from the Italian members of the committee, the vote proceeded as planned, concluding with 22 votes in favour<\/strong> and 3 against, thereby extending the exemption agreed in Rome until 2030<\/strong>. The vote was very tense\u2014a parliamentary source told Eunews that <\/em>“the climate was very heavy<\/strong>” and “feathers flew” between the members of ECH\u2014but the Italian line prevailed, partly because several foreign MEPs were absent on purpose to be replaced by Italian colleagues<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Paolo<\/a>
The leader of the Lega’s delegation in the EU Parliament, Paolo Borchia (photo: Alexis Haulot\/European Parliament)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/strong><\/figure>\n

\n

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<\/strong>, called it “excellent news for the fishermen of the Adriatic<\/strong>,” while from the Lega a press release signed by MEPs Anna Maria Cisint <\/strong>(member of PECH), Paolo Borchia, <\/strong>and Isabella Tovaglieri <\/strong>(the latter deputy members) speaks of a “victory of common sense<\/strong>” against the “short-sighted Brussels bureaucracy<\/strong>.” “Our fishermen are safe,” the joint note goes on to say. <\/p>\n

On the other side of the spectrum, the celebrations are wide-ranging, especially within the PD. “A balanced decision<\/strong> that holds together the protection of fishery resources<\/strong> and the safeguarding of jobs<\/strong> in our seas,” in the words of Giuseppe Lupo<\/strong> (member of the PECH) and Camilla Laureti<\/strong>, deputy leader of the Socialists in the chamber. For the Dems, the extension “represents a necessary adaptation to the specific environmental conditions<\/strong> of our seas, already affected by climate change<\/strong> and the presence of the blue crab<\/strong>,” critical factors in the alteration of Adriatic ecosystems, especially off the Veneto and Emilia-Romagna coasts\u2014at least until the next extension.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From right to left, Italian politicians celebrate Italy’s “victory”: fish farmers will be able to continue marketing shellfish with a diameter of 22 millimetres (less than the minimum size of 25 millimetres required by EU regulations)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":223541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25709],"tags":[25856,32299,28592,28420,32301],"class_list":["post-437856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agrifood-en","tag-camilla-laureti-en","tag-commissione-pesca-en","tag-giuseppe-lupo-en","tag-paolo-borchia-en","tag-vongole-veraci-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437857,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437856\/revisions\/437857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}