EU FISHERIES commissioner Joe Borg has said that the European Commission is “questioning even the fundamentals” in a review of its existing fishery management policy.
Some 88 per cent of stocks are overfished in Europe, and 30 per cent of European stock is “outside safe biological limits”, according to the commission, which published its Green Paper yesterday on the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) review.
Mr Borg appeared to shift the blame solely from fishermen, stating that consultation with stakeholders was a priority. Fish prices have collapsed in Europe, following a very difficult year last year due to escalating fuel prices.
Nothing short of a completely new fisheries management system would halt years of dangerously depleted stocks and get the struggling fishing industry back on its feet, Mr Borg said.
“We are not just looking for another reform — it is time to design a modern, simple and sustainable system for managing fisheries in the EU, which is able to last well into the 21st century,” he said at a press conference yesterday in Brussels.
Earlier this month, Mr Borg said the EU should draw on wider experience in fisheries management, and examine “best practice amongst our peers outside the EU”. The EU could learn from the US and Canada, he said, and he paid tribute to Norway for its ban on discards of fish.
Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Brendan Smith is due to hear a presentation on the Green Paper in Luxembourg today, and the Government would be studying the proposals as part of the “opening of consultation”, a spokeswoman said. The new system is due to be in place by 2012, a decade after the last review.
The Federation of Irish Fishermen said it welcomed publication of the discussion document, while saying it took “major issue with much of the analysis”.
“It does represent the start of a vital and overdue reform process for the Common Fisheries Policy which will largely determine the future of Ireland’s fishing industry up to 2022,” FIF chairman Lorcan Ó Cinnéide said.
Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins said that the CFP review “must respect the needs of fishermen and fishing communities”.
“I am also heartened by the views of the commissioner that more decisions should be taken at the local level and Ireland must push for this to happen so as we have a greater say in what happens to our coastal resources.”
Greenpeace EU oceans policy director Saskia Richartz described the Green Paper as “the last chance we have to reform a rotten policy and save our seas”.
“Ministers and the commission are responsible for making European fisheries one of the most unsustainable and least profitable fisheries in the world,” she said.
