At the informal meeting of European Fisheries Ministers in Cork on Wednesday 29 July, several Member States called for the common fisheries policy (CFP) to evolve, with a shared objective: to adapt the European framework to the new realities of a sector marked by an ageing workforce, the green transition and the effects of climate change (see EUROPE 13917/2).
Spain’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, called for the debate on the future of the CFP to be used to authorise the use of European and national funds to finance the construction of new fishing vessels. In his view, fleet renewal is essential to ensure generational renewal, improve the sector’s profitability and safeguard the European Union’s food security.
“In the 21st century, we are using boats from the last century, and that is no longer viable”, he said. To attract new fishermen, vessels must be “safer, more comfortable, more selective in their catches and decarbonised”, he insisted. Madrid is advocating several changes as part of the future reform: simplification of the European rules applicable to fisheries, stronger resources for the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), in order to restore levels of support comparable to the previous financial framework, as well as authorisation to use European or national public funds to support the construction of new vessels, an option currently limited by European rules.
Asked about the scale of the reform needed, Luis Planas said there was no need to “reopen everything”, recalling the progress made over the past 10 years in sustainability. However, in his view, the priority must now shift: “The focus must now be on profitability, because there is no sustainability without profitability”.
The Spanish minister also underlined the growing impact of climate change on fishing activities, citing in particular record temperatures observed around the Balearic Islands as well as shifts in species, such as the increased presence of bluefin tuna in Irish waters. In his view, the European Union must both protect the oceans and adapt fishing activity to the new ecological realities.
Ireland ambitious. Ireland’s Minister of State for Fisheries, Timmy Dooley, called for a significant revision of the CFP, arguing that the current framework was no longer suited to the changes affecting the sector, particularly as a result of climate change.
“We are seeing that, under the effect of climate change, stocks that are very important to us, particularly pelagic species, are moving north in search of colder waters and leaving areas under our jurisdiction. Conversely, we are seeing other species appear in our waters from the Bay of Biscay, such as bluefin tuna”, he explained.
In his view, the future reform must make it possible “to open up new prospects for Irish fishermen” so that they can benefit from changes in the distribution of stocks.
Asked about the founding principles of the CFP, in particular equal access to common resources and the principle of relative stability of quotas, Timmy Dooley said they were “no longer suited” to current realities. “The CFP may have been suited to the time when it was designed, but today it requires a very substantial revision”, he said, advocating a system more closely aligned with the geographical evolution of fishery resources.
Dutch Fisheries Minister Silvio Erkens also argued for an in-depth reform of the CFP. “We want to go quite far in reforming the CFP,” he said, calling in particular for a reduction in the administrative burdens weighing on the sector.
For her part, French minister Catherine Chabaud said that France was not advocating a complete overhaul of the CFP, but rather for targeted changes allowing European policy to be adapted to current challenges. She stressed the need to accelerate vessel modernisation and give professionals greater visibility. In her view, annual decisions on fishing opportunities make economic planning difficult for businesses. She is therefore defending a more multiannual approach.
Commission’s initial leads. European Commissioner for Fisheries Costas Kadis said he could not anticipate the Commission’s final decisions, but identified several areas that will be central to the reflection following the evaluation of the CFP.
The priorities include: - generational renewal; - administrative simplification; - fleet modernisation and decarbonisation; - better integration of socio-economic dimensions into the scientific advice used to set fishing opportunities; - increased support for small-scale and coastal fisheries; - ensuring a level playing field between European fishermen.
These elements will appear in the note he will present to the college of Commissioners with a view to possible targeted changes to the CFP Regulation.
As regards future European funding, Costas Kadis also identified several priorities: targeted support for small fisheries, support for fleet modernisation and decarbonisation, as well as simplification of financial instruments.
A cautious Irish Presidency. At the closing press conference, the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, said that the evaluation of the CFP should be viewed with nuance.
In his view, some conservation measures have produced positive results, as illustrated in particular by the recovery of certain stocks. He also cited the example of bluefin tuna, whose return to certain European areas is benefiting Spanish and Portuguese fishers thanks to the improved state of the stock. “That may not be much comfort to Irish fishermen, who cannot catch them,” he acknowledged, but it shows that a European policy can deliver results.
However, the minister stressed the need to adapt the European framework to the new realities of the sector. In his view, several Member States in Cork expressed the need for a more suitable regulatory framework, combining simplification of rules, reduction of administrative burdens, vessel modernisation, improved occupational safety, account being taken of environmental challenges and support for emerging sectors.
He also underlined that the sustainability of stocks must remain at the heart of European policy, while ensuring better economic profitability for fishermen.
On the post-2027 European budget devoted to fisheries and aquaculture, Martin Heydon said that the Irish Presidency intended to defend adequate funding for the sector in the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
He acknowledged that the ‘Agriculture and Fisheries’ Council had no direct role in the negotiations on the 2028-2034 MFF, but stressed the need to preserve sufficient resources for the CFP and the fisheries sector over the next seven years. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)