Brussels, 06/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - At a day of work on the future of areas dependent on fishing, organised in Bordeaux at the end of June by the Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the region of Aquitaine, Commissioner Franz Fischler and two hundred representatives of coastal authorities in Europe and professionals from the fishing sector considered that the Commission's Green Paper on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (Cfp) made a very severe but correct assessment of the state of the sector; over-capacity of the fishing fleet, decrease in jobs (300,000 people today), mediocre return, reduction of fish stocks in the North Sea and the Mediterranean, difficulties in implementing technical and regulatory measures.
"We can no longer practice the policy of the ostrich. The continued erosion of fish stocks jeopardises the survival of European fishermen and thus entire regions in Europe", said Fischler regarding this observation of a crisis. He said he was "sensitive" to the concerns of the professionals and regions and their call in favour of a Cfp that ensures the perennial nature of fishing, job retention as well as the industry's sustainability. Maritime regions notably want the players to be involved in the decision-making process, upstream of decisions, through meetings between scientists, professionals and politicians, as well as the putting in place of specific rules adapted to the different geographic areas. Franz Fischler welcomed the CPMR's requests for a strengthening of the socio-economic dimension of the future Cfp, which would enrich the Green Paper in the framework of the process of dialogue launched by the Commission. The Commissioner observed that these proposals corresponded to the goals of the future policy - a need for sustainable management of fishing (from an ecological, economic and social point of view) and the need to get the players of the sector more involved. "We must also study how to ensure that decision-making procedures can enable us to rapidly react to local needs and emergency situations", the Commissioner added, intending to improve the way the Cfp is managed "through, for example, regional consultative committees whose action would be transparent and non-discriminatory".
French Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Jean Glavany, was more critical, especially concerning the multi-annual operational plans (Mops): these are "heavy, complex and unmanageable mechanisms, the failure of which should enable us to draw up a death certificate", he thought. Focusing public aid on a 40% reduction in the over-capacity of the European fleet and on support for the re-conversion of fishermen, as means of rendering fleet policy more effective, is no solution backed by France, the Minister stressed, for whom the absorption of this capacity should be "undertaken on a voluntary basis in the context of financial incentives set at European level and without pre-distribution by Member States, i.e. without penalising restructured fleets. According to him, "the objective reality is that European fleets are not at the same point; some have already restructured, others not (..) and there is no fair reason why the former pay for the delay of the others".
"Fleet obsolescence, worsening security (…) disinterest by the young" summarised Alain Parres, President of the National Fishing Council, on behalf of Europeche (European professional federation) to describe the perverse effects of the Mops, adding that "the Green Paper lacks ambition and political will for the professionals". The Finnish President of the CPMR, Stig Ostdahl, recalled that small fishing and coastal fishing, which have a defining role in the planning of the territory, had eroded. Observation shared by Hugues Martins, Deputy Chair of the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee.