“As the EU’s largest mackerel shareholder, I am extremely concerned at the highly regrettable decision by Norway, Iceland and the Faroes to set inflated and unjustified unilateral mackerel quotas.” Norway increased its share of the stock by 55% on a unilateral basis for 2021. This was then mirrored by Faeroes and Iceland continued to set an unacceptable high share of the stock. I made clear to fellow Ministers and the Commissioner that “if those parties are unwilling to reverse their unilateral actions, then the EU must take strong action using all possible measures, including trade sanctions, to protect the sustainability of the mackerel stock and to protect the EU share of that stock.”