Brussels, 29/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - '2008 will be a decisive year for the future development of control. Control is a vital element of the Common Fisheries Policy,' said EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg at the Europeche (Association of EU national fisheries companies) AGM in Brussels on Monday 28 January. Other fishery priorities mentioned by the Commissioner included the EU's new fish farm strategy and the unveiling of new fish stock management plans.
Controls should be established 'to guarantee a decent livelihood for honest fishermen and to stop facilitating, so to say, the lives of those operating outside the law', explained Joe Borg, who is planning to unveil an ambitious new raft of proposals this year to replace the existing control rules.
The Commissioner explained: 'The use of new technologies, such as electronic logbooks, the vessel detection system and the VMS, are key to this objective. Overall, it is a whole new culture of compliance that we are aiming to achieve - one that we believe can only come about through new methodologies and mutual assistance.'
'We also hope to extend the mandate of the Community Fisheries Control Agency in order to render it more effective. Amongst the new tasks that could be performed by the Agency, one finds: co-ordination of market control and cross-border transports,' he added.
'It is our intention to present a revised and coherent EU aquaculture strategy by the end of the year. This strategy will touch upon various policy areas such as environment, health, research, markets and trade.'
The Commissioner also announced 'some other important proposals to be tabled by the Commission this year: - We will propose a new technical measures Regulation, which will include a major revision of current technical measures in the Atlantic and the North Sea with a view to simplifying the rules and making them more consistent and easier to enforce; - We will report on the functioning of the Regional Advisory Councils with a view to enhancing the effective role that they already play, and; - We will come forward with a number of new multi-annual management plans, namely for anchovy, northern hake and for salmon in the Baltic Sea. Apart from these Commission initiatives there are a number of important files waiting for adoption by the Council of Ministers. We hope for decisions during the Slovenian Presidency on a number of important issues, such as the new long-term plan for herring in the West of Scotland, the revision of the Cod Recovery Plan and the Regulation on enhanced measures against IUU fishing (unauthorised fishing, Ed.).' (L.C.)