Monday

27th Mar 2023

Opinion

EU's new fisheries policy: throwing a lifeline to the oceans

  • European consumers eat nearly twice the fish that our oceans can provide. (Photo: EU commission)

Fisheries policy has never been the type of issue that lives in the spotlight. Yet we now find ourselves at a time when what is at stake with the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is nothing short of the future of European fisheries.

European consumers eat nearly twice the fish that our oceans can provide, our over-subsidized fleet is too big, too powerful and not selective enough, and according to the Commission, 91 percent of fish stocks in Europe could be at risk in the next decade if nothing is done to reverse this trend.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

It is clear that this reform will affect everyone from fishermen to consumers, and from policy makers to their constituents.

The Commission's CFP reform proposal is far from perfect, but it is a laudable effort that represents an improvement over the 2002 policy: it attempts to strengthen the environmental pillar in its list of objectives, imposes the obligation to implement the precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management, and focuses on longer-term management.

It also incorporates the objective that by 2015 all stocks be exploited above levels which can produce the Maximum Sustainable Yield. So far, so good — but that's about where the good news ends.

Unfortunately, the Commission has proposed a some what conflicting policy that is torn between its conservation and exploitation objectives. For example, the proposal describes a CFP that is focused on the long term, as is evidenced by the support of long-term management plans, yet it sets no objectives past 2015, which let's be honest, might as well be tomorrow.

Lack of a roadmap

Given that the EU is bound by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive to achieve good environmental status in its marine waters by 2020, the lack of a roadmap to get there is disheartening.

This CFP should be, in essence, an environmental policy, wherein environmental considerations are a prerequisite to social and economic sustainability. Marine conservation is simply not the enemy of fisheries management, and it is critical that the industry, EU member states and all other stakeholders understand this.

The ecosystem-based approach (EBA) reconciles fisheries management with an ecosystem perspective, aiming at the long term viability of exploitation through the equilibrium and health of the ecosystem.

The EBA is what we must see properly implemented into any reform if we truly wish to see positive change in both the industry and our seas. At this stage in the debate, EBA sounds more like a buzzword. Everyone is talking about it, so it was included in the objectives of the CFP proposal, but because no one knows exactly what it means, no mechanism for its implementation was included.

What it in fact means is shifting from management based only on fish stocks to one based on the entirety of the ecosystem, thereby broadening the current basic management to incorporate, for example the interactions of targeted species in the food chain, or the resilience of each ecosystem impacted.

This will be a true challenge in the coming months as negotiations ramp up, but if it is properly done, it can change the future of fisheries management in Europe for the better.

Ending over exploitation of fish stocks

The first step towards implementing this approach is a simple one, but it is also one that we in Europe have failed to take time and again: ending the over exploitation of our fish stocks.

Our first priority should be to adapt the amount we take out of the sea to the availability of the resource. In Europe over the past 10 years, 41% of scientific advice has been ignored by fisheries ministers when setting fishing opportunities for our fleets, putting not only our stocks and marine ecosystems in jeopardy, but also the future of the communities that depend on them.

The Commission's proposal makes a brave attempt to stop the political bargaining over TACs and quotas by requiring that fishing opportunities be set "in accordance with scientific advice."

The reduction of overcapacity in the EU's fishing fleet is also indispensable to any attempt at reversing the downward spiral. However the Commission's proposal to create a "Transferable Fishing Concessions" scheme will lead to nothing but the concentration of fishing rights ownership in the hands of large companies without any means by which to monitor or control what is happening with these rights.

The only way to truly end overcapacity is to impose legally binding capacity reduction targets and eliminate harmful subsidies.

The current proposal has a way to go before it can effectively tackle the problem at hand. Sadly, those who refuse to see beyond their short term economic incentives are seeking to water-down the proposal's already weak environmental focus. There is much work ahead, and considering that this may be one of the last opportunities to bring our oceans back, the upcoming months of negotiations are certainly daunting.

Author bio

Xavier Pastor is Executive Director of Oceana in Europe.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

New EU policy aims to reduce overfishing by 2015

In a frank admission that the current EU fisheries policy is "not working", the responsible commissioner Maria Damanaki on Wednesday unveiled a new set of measures aimed at reducing overfishing by 2015. Environmental groups are sceptical that the plan will work.

Morocco expels EU fishing boats

Morocco has told all EU fishing boats to immediately get out of its waters after MEPs scotched a bilateral aid agreement in a row over Western Sahara.

EU bans practice of chopping off shark fins

The European Commission has announced a full ban on "shark finning" - the practice in which fishermen cut off the dorsal fin of a shark and throw it back into the water, often while it is still alive.

Feature

EU subsidies fuel Spain’s ravenous fleet

Decades of overfishing have left Europe’s fish stocks in peril and its fishermen in poverty. It’s an impasse paid for by EU taxpayers. Yet a proposed revision of the EU’s fishing law, hailed as sweeping reform, is rapidly losing momentum.

EU needs to act on the science to preserve oceans

As a Green MEP, ex-environment minister and former vice prime-minister of Sweden, Isabella Lovin spent many years advocating for ocean conservation and the welfare of fisheries dependent communities. The UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon was all words, no action.

MEPs back end to fish discard 'madness'

MEPs have voted in more eco-friendly rules on fish discards as part of a package to reform the EU's much-maligned common fisheries policy

Editorial

Okay, alright, AI might be useful after all

Large Language Models could give the powers trained data-journalists wield, to regular boring journalists like me — who don't know how to use Python. And that makes me tremendously excited, to be honest.

How much can we trust Russian opinion polls on the war?

The lack of Russian opposition to the Russo-Ukrainian War is puzzling. The war is going nowhere, Russian casualties are staggering, the economy is in trouble, and living standards are declining, and yet polls indicate that most Russians support the war.

Latest News

  1. Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity
  2. Finnish elections and Hungary's Nato vote in focus This WEEK
  3. EU's new critical raw materials act could be a recipe for conflict
  4. Okay, alright, AI might be useful after all
  5. Von der Leyen pledges to help return Ukrainian children
  6. EU leaders agree 1m artillery shells for Ukraine
  7. Polish abortion rights activist vows to appeal case
  8. How German business interests have shaped EU climate agenda

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  5. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023
  6. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us