(LUXEMBOURG) - Polish fishermen will have their cod quotas cut for the next four years after overfishing in 2007, European fisheries ministers ruled Monday.

Last year Poland was found to have passed its 8,000 tonne limit for cod fishing, reeling in some 10,000 tonnes.

Therefore this year the Polish quota will be cut by 10 percent of last year's overfish, with 30 percent more to be pulled back in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

But the matter may not be so easy to regulate as, according to Warsaw, Polish fishing boats have already taken half of their annual quota of Baltic cod.

A Polish scientific study was launched at the start of the year to provide a detailed estimate of cod numbers in the Baltic Sea.

Polish fishermen believe those figures will be significantly higher than the ones used by the European Commission in its figures.

Agriculture and Fisheries Council, 14 April 2008

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