Brussels, 14/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - In their debate in Brussels on Monday 14 May on the environmental features of the common fisheries policy (CFP), most ministers called for flexibility in managing fish stocks according to the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) principle. The Commission along with a number of countries, such as Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (along with the Danish delegation) called for MSY to be achieved by 2015, while several other countries called for MSY to be reached by 2015 where possible and at the latest by 2020. Most countries, including, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, acknowledged that achieving MSY in mixed fisheries (where several species are caught in the nets at the same time) would be very complicated. The “friends of the fish” countries (Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Danish delegation, the United Kingdom et al) disagreed with the “friends of the fishermen” countries (Spain, France, Belgium, Ireland, Poland, and others) on the extent to which environmental features should be taken into account in the CFP.
Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said that agreement had been reached on MSY for 20 stocks so that, at the December Fisheries Council, additional revenue estimated at €135 million was made available to fishermen. She argued: “We have proved that this objective could be met”. She acknowledged the differences that exist between countries on the timetable for achieving MSY and how it is to be achieved. She admitted that some information on MSY was lacking and said that, in mixed fisheries, many countries did not want the most-at-risk species to determine the approach taken. She said she hoped she would be able to respond to member states' concerns proportionately and pragmatically. She said that if member states needed a further year or two in the deadline for MSY, that could be discussed. There was room for flexibility, based, of course, on detailed scientific opinion on the stocks which have to be protected, she stated. An end date for the exercise as a whole was needed, Damanaki argued.
During the debate, Germany stressed that MSY had to be set in the CFP basic regulation and in multiannual management plans (which are applied for the moment to certain stocks of fish, such as cod, hake and horse mackerel). “Ambition will have to be shown in fixing this objective, without losing sight of reality”, German minister Ilse Aigner said. Germany argued that MSY be based on fishing mortality (death or removal of fish from a population due to fishing). “Between now and 2015 mortality rates will have to be set for the various species, based on best scientific advice, and from this we will be able automatically to deduce the MSY”, she said. Germany said, in substance, that existing instruments (“strategy for the marine environment” framework directive, Natura 2000) had to be used to ensure that the CFP complies with environmental requirements.
The Netherlands said that MSY must be achieved by 2015, and acknowledged the problems with regard to mixed fisheries.
Spanish minister Miguel Arias Canete said that MSY should be reached by 2015 for stocks where this is possible and 2020 for some species where stocks take longer to rebuild. “It is very difficult to achieve MSY in a mixed fishery as the technical measures that would enable one single species to be selected just do not exist.” Spain called for a balance to be maintained between environmental sustainability and the viability of the fisheries sector.
Bulgaria and Romania called on the Commission to show flexibility on MSY, especially in the Black Sea on which other, non-EU, countries border and in which they fish.
The United Kingdom said it was important that MSY, in line with the objective set in Johannesburg in 2002, form part of the basic regulation. Thereafter, multiannual plans should indicate how MSY is to be achieved in practice, fishery by fishery. A variety of measures should be considered for the management of mixed fisheries, including a certain room for manoeuvre in reaching MSY and technical measures, the UK argued. The CFP is part of a broader policy area (the marine environment. The need to build the EU's environmental requirements into the common fisheries policy (“strategy for the marine environment” framework directive) has to be taken into consideration, the UK stated.
For the French representative, MSY has to be reached gradually, step by step, “to limit the socio-economic impact of management measures on the fisheries”. France proposed that the objective should be set in the new CFP of achieving MSY “by 2015 for all stocks where this is possible and by 2020 at the latest”. Like others, France, felt that using fishing mortality rate would be the right way to set the deadline for achieving MSY. Targets for achieving MSY should be set out in multiannual plans. France highlighted, too, the difficulties in achieving MSY simultaneously for all stocks in a single mixed fishery (lack of expertise in this area as scientific advice is based on a species by species approach). “It does not seem to us to be the right way to proceed that the most run-down species in a mixed fishery should be managed as a priority, to the detriment of all the others. We recommend a degree of flexibility” (this point was taken up by Belgium and the Netherlands, too). “We agree that consistency has to be sought between the CFP and environmental policy, but we cannot under any circumstances accept any subordination of one to the other”, the French representative stated.
Poland, too, said that account had to be taken of the socio-economic impact of achieving MSY.
The Danish delegation argued that MSY should be achieved by 2015, but the most important thing would be to have a deadline of 2020 at the latest. It suggested that ways be found to resolve the issue of mixed fisheries (more selective fishing gear to protect the most vulnerable species). (LC/transl.rt)