European Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella said once again in Brussels on Tuesday 15 May that he would not alter the current rules on the landing obligation (ending of discards). He also announced a proposal, expected for the end of May, on amending the fisheries control system and stated that the budget of the new European maritime and fisheries fund (EMFF) for 2021-2027 would be 4% lower than that of the current EMFF (2014-2020).
The commissioner was addressing the members of the European Parliament fisheries committee within the framework of the “structured dialogue”. Several MEPs highlighted the difficulties facing fishermen in complying with the landing obligation by the deadline of 1 January 2019. “Something has to be done when the rules don’t work”, said Gabriel Mato (EPP, Spain). Linnéa Engström (Greens/EFA, Sweden), on the other hand, argued that the landing requirement should be fully implemented and receive political support.
“The landing obligation rule cannot be thrown overboard”, said Vella. The rules cannot be changed part way through: that would unfair towards the fishermen who have come into line with the rules, he insisted. He pointed out that the EMFF offers financial possibilities; yet the member states have used only €50 million in total (barely 1% of the EMFF) to help fishermen come into line with the rules. He chided the member states for not putting the infrastructure in place to make it possible to implement the rule banning discards at sea.
Controls. At the end of May, the Commission will bring forward a proposal revising the system for monitoring fisheries products. Vella indicated that the aim was to address the current shortcomings on sanctions, implementation of the landing obligation, illegal fishing data and uploading of electronic data.
EMFF. The budget of the new EMFF for 2021-2027 will be 4% lower than that of the current fund (2014-2020). Vella laid great emphasis on the “very low” implementation rate of the current EMFF. It is impossible, then, to seek to keep the same level of budget in future when existing resources are under-used. Among the priorities of the 2021-2027 EMFF, he highlighted the sustainability of fishing, control data, coastal fisheries, the coastal community, ocean governance and the blue economy. The legislative proposal on the 2021-2027 EMFF will be presented at the start of June.
Lastly, the commissioner pointed out the progress in implementation of the common fisheries policy (CFP): 97% the volume of expected fish landings this year will be in line with maximum sustainable yield (MSY). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)