Brussels, 05/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - At a conference organised by five regions of western France in Brussels on Tuesday 29 September 2009, the European Commission set out its ideas for a radical and ambitious revamp of the common fisheries policy (CFP).
The Commission is “convinced that the prime CFP objective should be to ensure healthy, balanced fish stocks,” explained Mireille Thom, a member of EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg's cabinet office. What is the best way to strike a balance between the availability of fish and fleet capacity? “We have to admit that the mechanisms used to date have been complicated to apply, costly and have not achieved their aims,” said Mrs Thom. An option mooted on several occasions by Joe Borg (see EUROPE 9945) is the introduction of individual transferable (i.e. saleable) quotas, an idea strongly criticised by some EU member states. Mrs Thom explained that “the approach has achieved good results in some fishing countries that used to experience the same overcapacity problems as we do”. She recognised that it might be necessary to introduce safeguard measures to “prevent the quotas being concentrated in a few hands”. The system of transferable rights could be accompanied by special measures for small-scale family and off-coast fishing boats, which is why the Commission is considering a “differentiated fleet approach” (one for large-scale fishing and one for small-scale fishing).
One of the main characteristics of maritime Europe is the relative stability it provides whereby each member state knows it will receive a share of fishing quotas, but the system has led to “rigidity in a number of areas, complex fishing quota exchange practices and political pressure for total allowable catches (TACs) to be set above reasonable levels,” said Mrs Thom. The fishing possibilities are currently distributed in the form of national quotas but they could also be allocated as fishing rights. As Commissioner Borg recently explained, such rights could be allocated in the form of days at sea which, like the quotas, could be subject to a system of individual transferable rights. Each owner would manage their annual days at sea and land all the fish caught. This would prevent the wastage of perfectly saleable fish and shellfish being rejected. The EU has promised to gradually phase out the rejection or throwing back of fish.
The second main aim is to improve and strengthen CFP governance by decentralising it. Maritime Europe is often criticised for being over-centralised, over-prescriptive, over-complicated and ill adapted to reality. The Commission therefore believes it makes sense to simplify decision-making by ensuring that “framework” measures are taken by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. Some powers could be delegated to the Commission and application measures would be decentralised as far as possible. Member states, for example, would cooperate within marine basins and agree on the details of how decisions are to be implemented. The decentralisation would also apply to the profession, which should be able to assume greater responsibility and demonstrate that it can produce the desired results by deciding itself on how to achieve this, explained Mrs Thom.
The market for fisheries products is a key section of the CFP. EU fisheries production is declining (and imports therefore increasing), and the price fishermen receive for their fish is stagnating or even falling. The Commission has decided to make a reform of the common organisation of the fisheries markets (CMO) the focus of CFP reform. Key elements of the CMO and CFP reform will be the work of producers' organisations in the future, inter-industry organisations, labelling, traceability and new market mechanisms. The role of fish farming - whether it should be included in the CFP, and whether it needs special EU mechanisms of its own or whether member states should be left in charge - are questions to be discussed in order to find the best ways of ensuring a secure future for fish farming in the EU. (L.C./transl.fl)