Brussels, 26/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 26 February, the European Commission adopted a communication on rights-based management tools in fisheries. The Commission wants to improve the understanding of how fishing rights such as licences, individual fishing quotas, days at sea and/or limited access to fishing grounds are set up and used within the EU and to discuss best practices. It will take stock of the debate and assess the need for follow-up at EU and national levels in the first quarter of 2008. Thus the Commission has re-opened debate on the controversial subject of individual transferable quotas (a quota held by a vessel owner or by a fishing vessel, which, therefore, are privatised and which can be sold or leased in the same way as a piece of real estate) which took place in 2002 during the process of reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The Commission points out that the choice and setting up of fisheries management systems are matters for individual member states. The systems in place, however, have an effect on the economic situations of the Community fleets. The Commission does not intend to recommend a single rights-based management system, simply to open a debate on these issues. “This debate will help to shed light on the options available to member states to fine tune their management systems,” said European Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner Joe Borg.
Rights-based management includes any system of allocating individual fishing rights to fishermen, fishing vessels, enterprises, cooperatives or fishing communities. Markets in fishing rights exist in most Member States. In some (Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Spain), national regimes specify that days at sea or part of the catch quota can be sold or leased. In others, those who wish to acquire more fishing rights have to buy a fishing vessel. The degree of transparency or openness of these transactions may vary greatly depending on how the system is formalised. Even when they are not specified by national law, in most member states such markets exist de facto, the Commission says. It is for the member state to share out the fishery resource, based on past records and fishermen's needs. In France, quotas are very often managed collectively and shared out by producer organisations.
The Commission acknowledges that individual transferable quotas are not a miracle cure to the problem of the diminishing resource. It says, however, that this mechanism allows the fishermen to take more responsibility and can lead to a reduction in fishing capacity and, therefore, to a more economically healthy sector. Ultra-liberals support a system where the biggest and most powerful companies can oust the weakest, who find themselves unable to buy quotas. The Commission accepts that the cost of acquiring fishing rights can very high and that this can have a negative effect, such as the concentration of rights in the hands of a small number of large companies to the detriment of small coastal communities. Individual transferable quotas are used mainly in third countries like New Zealand, Norway, Iceland and the United States. Canada's experience with transferable quotas proved a failure: the Canadian government had to buy back rights and redistribute them more fairly among the country's fishermen. (lc)