Brussels, 14/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - During their debate in Luxembourg on Thursday 14 April, fisheries ministers of EU member states were divided over review of fishing effort management in western waters. Most states said the system should be reviewed but only once the reform process for the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has been completed.
Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said the system should be adjusted as the situation has changed since it was first put in place, the aim being to ensure sustainability of fishing stocks. She acknowledged the fact that review of the fishing effort was a “difficult” exercise linked to the CFP reform process.
In November 2010, the European Commission adopted a report to assess application in western waters of the fishing effort management system established in 2003, looking at three aspects - its implementation by member states, the conditions for access to the very outlying regions in the North East Atlantic, and the effectiveness of specific rules relating to the effort applying in an area located to the west and south of Ireland, known as a “biologically sensitive zone”. The western waters regime was set in place in 1995 to contain increases in the fishing effort.
During the Council, Ireland took a stance in favour of keeping the system in place, and more specifically to strengthen it in biologically sensitive zones. Portugal called for the exemption granted in this regime to the very outlying regions to be kept in place (a request also put forward by Spain). It also recommended that the regime should be developed along the lines of discard reduction. Sweden (which is not concerned by the system) said that the fishing effort management scheme is one of the elements to be associated with quotas and technical measures. France called for the current regime to be kept in place as it is considered, above all, as a system providing access (to waters) and not as a management scheme. The current ceilings in terms of fishing effort suit France, which agrees to work on management measures (including for reducing discards), but in the context of fish and crustacean management plans. The United Kingdom questioned the system somewhat, saying it was necessary to see whether the demersal species placed under quota should be eliminated from the regime in western waters. These species are in fact already covered by stock recovery plans. Belgium felt it was necessary to avoid replacing the system with more detailed regulations. The system comprises major restrictions for Belgium when it comes to ceilings (fishing effort) and a solution must be found to this problem.
Spain asserted the scheme should be adjusted to ensure sustainable fishing conditions, and attacked the fact that it was inflexible in nature. The scheme must, Spain says, be applied to all fishing craft without being subject to the criteria of length. The differentiation must also be maintained between fishing effort during fishing operations and fishing in transit.
France, Germany and Belgium displayed some reluctance about the usefulness of the fishing effort restriction systems, preferring to use total allowable catches (TAC) and quotas.
The president-in-office to the Council, Sándor Fazekas, said it was necessary to improve the state of certain halieutic stocks, to better develop the link between restrictive measures and the fishing effort. An agreement was reached that the current system must be updated in order to target the fishing effort better, said the Hungarian minister for rural development, adding that efforts to reduce discards must be intensified and specific measures must be taken for biologically sensitive zones. Review must go hand in hand with CFP reform, the Hungarian presidency continued. (L.C./transl.jl)