According to Carlos Iturgaiz MEP (EPP, Spain) who presented the European Parliament's fisheries committee with his draft report on Tuesday 27 February, there are still too many brakes on the European aquaculture sector, which are preventing its effective development.
According to the latter, the main challenges involve creating standard conditions for competition within the Union and with competitors from third countries. To this end, he is recommending reduced bureaucratic procedures, increased transparency and efficient planning. The MEP is proposing that clear and transparent licensing procedures with reduced deadlines for the agreement that do not deter investments, are put into place. Similarly, he is also calling for the European Commission to introduce guidelines for strategic national plans in an effort to promote the uniform application of Community legislation (mainly in the environment and aquatic animal health domains). Finally, the EU should also take a tougher line with imports of aquatic products and implement better border controls. Carlos Iturgaiz also emphasises how are these measures would help develop the sector, such as: improved communication to consumers with appropriate labelling and a "common market" for vaccines and other veterinary products.
These proposals were generally given a warm welcome by the MEPs, even though some of them thought it would be good to introduce a kind of “greening" for aquaculture (limiting the use of antibiotics and their environmental impact).
Norbert Erdos (EPP, Hungary) wanted to see specific provisions for freshwater aquaculture.
Aquaculture accounts for around 20% of European fish production (the EU imports 60% of its sea food product requirements) and directly employs around 85,000 people.
In 2009, the European Commission published a sustainable development strategy for aquaculture and strategic guidelines in 2013 (see EUROPE 10837).
By the end of 2018, the European Commission will present an assessment of the situation regarding the conditions for granting licences and allocating aquaculture areas.
The vote on this committee report is planned for 23 April and it is expected to be adopted during the May plenary. (Original version in French)