Brussels, 17/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - French Minister Jean Glavany and Commissioner Franz Fischler have made a promise: they will do their utmost so that the last meeting of the "Fisheries" Council unfolds as well as possible and that the TACs (Total Allowable Catches) and national quotas are no longer fixed around five o'clock in the morning. During the final press conference, Mr Glavany insisted he was determined to rationalise the procedure and present a first draft compromise much earlier so that they do not "lose a day". The Fisheries Council session on this subject will be held on 14 and 15 December.
This good intention could, however, be brought into question by the size of the catch reductions to be proposed by the Commission, mainly in the North Sea and to the west of Scotland, as Mr Fischler recalled, who, in Mr Glavany's words: "sought to prepare minds" as of this session on 17 November, by stressing the need to reduce certain catches. Referring to the latest scientific opinion, but without giving figures, the Commissioner spoke of the disastrous state of cod stocks and probably also of whiting and hake in the fishing areas mentioned above. The situation is also serious concerning stocks of haddock, saithe, plaice and sole. The Commissioner stressed that simply reducing catch allowances was not enough and that other technical measures should be taken to protect juveniles. The by-catches when fishing for other species can add up to considerable quantities and must also be taken into account, and the Commissioner pointed out that a reduction in the quotas for these other species must also be envisaged, mainly for shrimps, anglerfish and megrim. The ministers expressed their will to cooperate but some stressed the need not to forget the socio-economic impact of further fishing capacity reductions. EUROPE has reason to believe that the Danish Minister Ritt Bjerregaard welcomed these "fine words", but wondered what would happen at the time of negotiation.
As we announced earlier (see EUROPE of 16 November, p.9), the Council held a discussion on the multiannual guidance programmes (MAGP) which ended not with questioning of but rather with the scrapping of this fleet framework instrument. While noting that this is a highly complex subject, Mr Glavany summarised the debate by stressing that: 1) the conservation measures for resources and, above all the TAC regime and quotas, are considered by all as the fundamental instrument on which common fisheries policy should be based. At the same time, no-one believes that quotas alone can meet the aim of sustainable resource management; 2) the effectiveness of MAGP is highly challenged, including by the Commission, and some criticise its application, while others criticise its underlying principle. Everyone considers that either other measures should be found or other instruments to complete the conservation measures and take stock and fleet diversity into account; 3) the future provision, whatever it is like, should meet certain criteria that several delegations cited as essential: it should be coherent with the CFP as a whole, mainly with quotas, modulated and adjusted to regional particularities, well controlled and managed at a pertinent level, according to the principle of subsidiarity; with good Community control of effective sanctions being the condition for this subsidiarity. Mr Glavany concluded by saying he hoped that these general guidelines would be useful to the Commission in preparing its Green Paper on the future of CFP pending its revision in 2002.
EUROPE will come back to the other results of this Council session.