On Thursday 19 January in Strasbourg, the European Parliament called for the specificities of artisanal fisheries to be recognised in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and for existing instruments to be adapted to meet the needs of this sector.
The European Parliament adopted (408 votes in favour, 66 against and 44 abstentions) the report by João Pimenta Lopes (The Left, Portuguese) on the situation of artisanal fishing in the European Union and future prospects.
Five MEPs’ amendments were rejected in European Parliament plenary votes (see EUROPE 13074/19).
The European Parliament stresses the need to develop a common, more comprehensive and adequate definition of small-scale, artisanal and coastal fisheries. It believes that this definition should be included in a more horizontal regulation such as the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) regulation and urges the European Commission to address this issue in the future revision of the CFP regulation.
MEPs insist on the need to renew and modernise the artisanal fleet. The Commission should “review the criteria to find a compromise between the needs of artisanal fishermen and the need to ensure that the fishing capacity of the EU fleet does not increase”.
Exempting the artisanal fishing sector from paying fuel taxes would be another way to support it. The European Parliament therefore calls for the current exemption (Energy Tax Directive) to be maintained.
With an average age of 32.5 years, the fleets should benefit from the highest cofinancing rates under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) in order to be able to renew and modernise. The European Parliament proposes to replace the current funding process with a system of pre-financing, noting that the artisanal sector has access to only 7% of the funds available to the entire fishing industry. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)