The Scottish government was pleased that the EU Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, accepted Scotland's interpretation of article 13 of the CodRecovery Plan.
He was delivering a ministerial statement on the codrecovery plan, which lays out how much time many European fishermen are allowed to spend at sea, on Wednesday 7 December 2011.
"I am particularly encouraged to hear that the cod stocks in the North Sea have shown signs of recovery from what was, only a decade ago, a much depleted fishery, " he said.