Fishing quotas 2026: the EU transfers unused amounts from 2025 to the European fishing sector

Key data

The fishing fleets of the European Union have had expanded catch quotas available since 17 September 2026 for the current year. The Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2057 formalizes the transfer of quota amounts not used in 2025 to the year 2026, following the mechanism provided for in Article 4.2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 847/96.

This measure is not a regulatory novelty in itself: the mechanism for transferring unused quotas has existed for years. What is relevant for operators is that the specific amounts are already fixed and published, which allows them to act with legal certainty from now on.

What does this regulation establish?

Article 4.2 of Regulation (EC) No 847/96 allows fishing quota amounts that a Member State has not exhausted during one year to be carried forward to the following year. They are not lost: they are retained and formally added to the quotas of the following year.

Implementing Regulation 2026/2057 applies exactly that mechanism: the European Commission has calculated, species by species and Member State by Member State, what amounts remained unused in 2025 and now adds them to the 2026 quotas.

The key elements of how it works are:

• Breakdown by species: each fish species has its own quota, and the transfer is calculated independently for each one.
• Breakdown by Member State: each country receives only the amounts it did not use in 2025; there is no redistribution between countries.
• Established limits: the additional catches authorized in 2026 are limited to the retained amounts, with no possibility of exceeding that ceiling.
• Immediate effect: the regulation entered into force on the same day it was signed, 17 September 2026, one day before its official publication.

This regulation does not modify or repeal any base quota regulation: it acts as an annual technical adjustment to the quotas already set for 2026, increasing them by the retained amounts from the previous year.

Economic and operational impact

For the fishing sector, quotas are the scarcest and most determining resource for activity. Having additional quota in the final stretch of the year has direct economic value: more authorized catches equal more product volume to market.

The main operational effects are:

• Greater catch margin in 2026: shipowners and companies operating in fishing grounds with expanded quotas can increase their landings without risk of infringement.
• Flexibility to compensate: if in 2025 there were operational limitations (weather conditions, technical problems, restrictions on access to fishing grounds), uncaught amounts are not lost, but recovered in 2026.
• Fleet planning: knowing the expanded quotas allows adjustment of fishing trips, crew shifts and supply contracts with processing industries.
• Impact on the value chain: canning factories, wholesalers and distributors working with European fleets can anticipate a greater volume of raw material available in the remaining months of 2026.

The concrete economic impact varies depending on the Member State, the species and the volume of unused quota in 2025. The regulation published in the Official Journal contains the annexes with exact data by country and species, which are the operational reference for each operator.

Who does it affect?

• Shipowners and owners of fishing vessels from any EU Member State that had quota allocated in 2025 and did not exhaust it.
• Fishing companies and cooperatives that manage fleets or collective quotas.
• Producer organizations in fisheries responsible for internal quota distribution among their members.
• Processing and canning industry that depends on the volume of catches from its own fleet or European suppliers.
• Fish wholesalers and distributors that plan their purchases based on the availability of national catches.
• Advisors and managers of fishing companies that must update the operational and compliance plans of their clients.

Practical example

Imagine a Spanish fishing company that in 2025 had a quota of 500 tonnes of a certain species allocated in the waters of the north-eastern Atlantic, but only caught 420 tonnes due to adverse conditions in the last quarter of the year. The remaining 80 tonnes were not lost: they were "retained" in accordance with Article 4.2 of Regulation 847/96.

With the publication of Implementing Regulation 2026/2057, those 80 tonnes are formally added to the Spanish quota for that species in 2026. The company can now plan additional fishing trips to catch that extra volume before the end of the year, without needing to buy quota on the secondary market or request any additional authorization.

The practical effect is immediate: more authorized fishing days, greater product volume to deliver to its industrial clients and a direct improvement in 2026 revenue.

What should companies do now?

1. Consult the annexes of Regulation 2026/2057: access the full text published in the Official Journal of the EU to identify exactly what additional amounts correspond to your Member State and the species you operate.
2. Update the catch plan for 2026: with expanded quotas now confirmed, review the fishing trip schedule and vessel allocation to take advantage of the additional margin before the end of the year.
3. Coordinate with the producer organization: if the quota is managed collectively, communicate to the producer organization the additional amounts available so it can distribute them among its members.
4. Inform the supply chain: notify canning factories, wholesalers and industrial clients of the increase in available volume, to adjust contracts and delivery forecasts.
5. Verify compliance with limits: the additional authorized catches are strictly limited to the retained amounts from 2025; exceeding that ceiling constitutes a breach of EU fishing regulations.
6. Document additional catches: ensure that fishing logs and catch reporting systems correctly reflect the use of transferred quotas, to avoid problems in controls and inspections.

Official source

Consult complete regulation in official source

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific decisions, consult a qualified professional. Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/./legal-content/AUTO/?uri=OJ:L_202602057