fisheries minister Mogens Jensen (S) will have a particular focus on the protection of cod during the kvoteforhandlinger in the EU.

Minister for food, gender equality and fisheries, Mogens Jensen (S) begins on Monday, the negotiations on fishing quotas for the North sea, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat in 2020 in Brussels.

Here, the government will have a special focus on balancing concerns for the hummerfiskere on one of the bowls, and the protection of cod in the Kattegat on the other.

To this end, the government is ready to launch a completely new technology with electronic monitoring of fisheries.

- We introduce a great project on cctv on the perimeter of the boats in the Kattegat in order to ensure sustainable catch. It is a completely new means by which we introduce, and which I also think will have an impact in the rest of Europe, says Mogens Jensen.

Cod in the Kattegat is a by-catch in jomfruhummerfiskeriet. A fishery which is essential for the fishing ports around Kattegat - for example, on Læsø.

Therefore, it is according to Mogens Jensen important that the Danish fishermen can still fish for lobster, while at the same time work is being done to restore the cod stock.

According to marine biologists, there should be nulkvoter for cod in the Kattegat. The government will however have to follow the EU-Commission's proposal to allow limited by-catch cod.

This is because according to Mogens Jensen, the electronic monitoring will provide an incentive for fishermen to ensure that they remain within the quotas they have.

After the british parliamentary elections in the last week, it is clear that the Uk, by all accounts, leaving the UNION 31. January.

It will be one of the major challenges for the Danish fisheries in the coming years, says Mogens Jensen. However, it will not immediately be on the agenda during the week's negotiations in Brussels.

- Now it seems that we can maintain the current system of fishing until the end of 2020. It will, however, say that by the middle of 2020 must be overcome, what needs to happen next.

And cooperating Denmark with other countries to put it so high on the agenda as possible in the forthcoming negotiations between the EU and the Uk, so that we can continue to have a fishery in british waters, he says.

/ritzau/