The EU and Norway have signed three fisheries arrangements for 2020, including an agreement to cut the quota for North Sea cod by 50 percent to 17,679 metric tons.
The EU advocated for a stricter application of the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) approach, which would have resulted in a 61 percent TAC decrease.
In the North Sea, stocks were mainly set in line with ICES scientific advice, with quota reductions of 15 percent for saithe and 13 percent for whiting, but increases of 23 percent for haddock and 17 percent for plaice.