Luxembourg, 11/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - During the Fisheries Council held on Tuesday in Luxembourg, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Greece were highly critical of the reform proposals for the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). They mainly insisted on the disastrous social effects that abolition of public aid (national and Community) could entail for the building and modernisation of ships. On the other hand, eight Member States (Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Benelux and Austria) supported the broad lines of the strategy proposed by the Commission. Denmark said it was in favour of the proposals (reduction in fishing activity, sustainable exploitation of stocks, better profitability of the sector) but was more sceptical on some points (transfer of Council powers to the Commission regarding access to resources, risk of asking too much of countries that have already considerably reduced their fleets). Most ministers said they hoped to reach an agreement before the end of the Danish Presidency, but British national Eliot Morley admitted this would be difficult.
The Spanish delegation above all challenged the scientific data and the methodology used by the Commission. "We have detected errors concerning Spanish ships that are to be destroyed and stocks that are to come under recovery plans", said Carmen Fraga, who felt the Commission had "lost an opportunity to achieve reform that would tackle the substance of the problem". Ms Fraga said her country rejected the proposals concerning structural policy. Thus, the abolition of aid to renewal and the practical disappearance of aid for the modernisation of fleets are considered "inexplicable" given that the average age of vessels in the Community fleet in 2000 was 21.6 years. Reduction in the Community fleet's capacity is incompatible with the need to modernise the fleet, said Ms Fraga, who added she had legal doubts about the means of financing reform through reprogramming of structural funds. Spain cannot accept a policy which, by using recovery plans as a reference, "does not recognise the efforts accomplished to respect multiannual guidance programmes (MAGPs)", she affirmed. The Irish minister, Dermot Ahern felt that the balance of these proposals was critical. He stressed, among other things, that the transfer of powers on access to resources was unacceptable. French national Hervé Gaymard considered the reform proposed "far too unbalanced between the necessary protection of resources and the no less necessary account that should be taken of the socio-economic and territorial dimension of fishing". He found it "too globalising given the reality which is by nature complex". In his view, reform should avoid two pitfalls: "excessive provocation towards the sector in its form and too great a brutality in the implementation of substance". France considers the proposals on the multiannual management plans and the transfer of powers from the Council to the Commission for fixing catch authorisations and technical measures are unacceptable, in the same way as those on financing and the framework of the Community fleet. Among the positive elements he cites: - improvement in scientific opinions for assessing stocks; - more effective research on controls; - proposals concerning rules of access to resources (mainly the 6/12 mile regime) and the reaffirmation of the principle of relative stability in the breakdown of catch possibilities between Member States. Portuguese national Armando Sevinate Pinto said many aspects of the proposals would have serious consequences on his country's fleet. He noted that the Portuguese fleet is one of the oldest EU fleets (40% of the fleet is over 25 years old) and that the proposals will hamper the necessary modernisation of vessels. The United Kingdom notes three elements of capital importance: - abolition of aid to fleet renewal, maintaining the principle of relative stability and the creation of regional advisory committees. While opposing the Commission's strategy on suppression or phasing out of public aid, Italy said the proposals are "simplistic" and do not sufficiently take into account the specific features of fishing in the Mediterranean. In response to this last remark, also made by other countries, Franz Fischler specified that the Commission would be presenting a communication on this theme in the next couple of months.
Mr Fischler made a political presentation on his strategy declaring that it had "nothing to do with equal treatment or discrimination" and that it took into account the situation of stocks in different regions. It is therefore normal, he said, for all Member States not to be concerned in the same way. In his view, it is a mistake to affirm that the different situations in the different Member States are not taken into account: "we are not decreeing from above that a certain number of fishing boats should be demolished. We are making shipowners or fishermen an additional financial offer allowing them to voluntarily leave the sector if they feel that fishing will no longer be a worthwhile pursuit in the future", he said.