Brussels, 03/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 20 December, the European Commission adopted a study on the efforts made by member states in 2006 to achieve a sustainable balance between fishing capacity and fishing possibilities. The study shows that capacity of the EU fishing fleet continued its slow but steady reduction at an annual rate of between 2% and 3% (a trend recorded over the last fifteen years). However, according to the staff of European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, this reduction appears “too modest” when compared with the big reductions in effort required for some major fish stocks, the steady technological progress, and the poor economic performance of large parts of the fleet.
The Commission says starkly that the impact of fishing effort measures on capacity reduction has been low. Thus, the approach adopted during the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (using effort management as the main driving force for fleet adjustment) “has not yet yielded the expected results”. The reasons put forward for this were: the absence of effort management systems for several fisheries; the ineffectiveness of the existing ones (cod, sole, hake, prawn recovery plans, Western Waters Scheme, deep-water fisheries, etc.). Here, the CFP has ample room for improvement and future proposals to that end are already being considered, the study says. It says member states should provide better incentives for capacity adjustment. The 2007-2013 operational programmes, under the European Fisheries Fund (EFF), offer a not-to-be-missed opportunity to ease the transition towards a more efficient Community fleet in economic, environmental and social terms, the Commission says.
As in previous years, most member states have not provided a description of their fleets in relation to the state of the fisheries, the Commission says. (L.C.)