(LUXEMBOURG) - EU nations reached agreement Tuesday on fishing quotas in the Baltic Sea next year, overcoming a row between Poland and the European Commission over cod catches, the bloc's presidency announced.

The agreement by European fisheries ministers meeting in Luxembourg, sees a smaller reduction in authorised cod catches than the EU's executive arm had first suggested.

The cod catch quota in the eastern Baltic, the main Polish fishing zone, will only be reduced by five percent in 2008 whereas the Commission had sought a 22.65 percent reduction in order to allow the threatened stocks to replenish.

In the western Baltic, where Germany and Denmark are the main operators, the quota cut will be much more pronounced at 28 percent, compared with the 32.84 percent Brussels had called for.

For its part, Warsaw said it will present an action plan, in liaison with the Commission, to reinforce the controls on its fishing fleet. Poland also promised to respect future closures of fisheries by Brussels.

Poland had refused to respect the EU executive's decision in July to close down cod fishing for the year after fishermen there exhausted an annual quota.

Poland has a fleet of 430 trawlers fishing for cod in the Baltic, employing 5,000 people on board and in the onshore processing industry.

The government has taken the matter to the European Court of Justice, arguing that the Commission had got its sums wrong.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski lost Poland's general election on Sunday but the conservative leader has said that Warsaw will retain its tough stance in Luxembourg.

Warsaw is calling for an independent committee to check Brussels' quota figures.

Poland also wants to ban Scandinavian industrial-scale fishing in the Baltic which, it argues, is depriving Polish fishermen of their livelihoods.

Warsaw's stance has irritated its fellow Baltic nations, including Germany, Sweden and above all, Denmark, which are reluctant to be hit with big quota cutbacks next year due to what they see as Polish overfishing.

Agriculture and Fisheries Council, 23 October 2007

Text and Picture Copyright 2007 AFP. All other Copyright 2007 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.