The European Commission has today published its proposal for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. After 2 years of consultations, the proposal contains valuable elements, but falls short of what is needed to ensure sustainable fisheries in the EU.
At the June Fisheries Council meeting, EU Fisheries Ministers outrageously backed out of their international commitment to end overfishing by 2015 and chose to oppose the Commission’s proposals that would result in more sustainable fisheries.
In an open letter sent ahead of the June EU Fisheries Council meeting, Seas At Risk and the Fisheries Secretariat have called on Ministers to support an array of urgently needed measures to protect fish stocks when they discuss the Commission’s proposal for setting fishing limits for 2012.
EU Environment Ministers meeting earlier today have given only half-hearted support to the Commission’s Biodiversity Strategy, sending a worrying signal regarding the chances of achieving their commitment to halt the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020.
Due to continued overfishing, some fish stocks are now at perilously low levels, but it was not always like this: Fish Week 2011 looks to explore how the marine environment used to be healthier, how overfishing has changed this and how the EU’s CFP reform is an opportunity to go Back to the Future.
A United Nations (UN) meeting on oceans biodiversity has heard how poorly high seas fishing nations have performed in implementing their commitments to ground breaking resolutions adopted in 2006 and 2009, designed to protect biodiversity in the deep sea.
The European Commission has launched a consultation on catch quotas for 2012, asking for the first time for opinions of all stakeholders including the general public.
The online consultation runs until mid July and is specifically targeting the opinions of European Citizens on the way in which levels of fishing effort and fishing quotas are set in relation to scientific advice about sustainable fishing. The consultation focuses on two major recurring problems. The first is the mismatch between scientific assessments which determine sustainable catch levels and the on average much higher final catch limits decided by fisheries Ministers who regularly ignore the science. Commissioner Damanaki wants to tighten the rules so that decisions are closer to the advice. The second issue is what to do when scientific predictions and recommendations are uncertain because the available data is insufficient. The Commission proposes that in these cases the precautionary principle is applied and TACs are reduced by 25% or more if necessary until the concerned Member States come up with data for scientists to work with. The Commission consultation paper highlights that while some EU fish stocks have improved, the majority is still considered overfished. The EU has committed to end overfishing and to manage all fisheries at levels enabling Maximum Sustainable Yield by 2015. With this goal fast approaching, efforts must be stepped up. At the launch of the consultation, Commissioner Maria Damanaki for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries reminded the press that bringing all overfished stocks back to sustainable levels will benefit people and the environment. More fish in the sea will help to bring back profitability to European fishing communities and ensure that less effort and time is needed at sea to bring back the same amount of catch, resulting in less impact on the marine environment, reduced by-catch of unwanted species, less fish discarded and less CO2 emitted. Seas At Risk will respond to the consultation and inform fisheries Ministers of its opinion.
For more information on the ConsultationPresenting her own report on illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing at the European Parliament, MEP Isabella Lövin has called for the European Commission to strengthen its battle against IUU fishing.
With blatant disregard for the EU’s commitments on climate change and biodiversity loss, and in a move that could encourage further overfishing of depleted fish stocks, European Parliamentarians have voted favourably on a resolution urging the European Commission to increase national fuel subsidies for the fishing industry.
Several Members of the European Parliament are rallying for support to double the allowance of national aid for fishermen to €60,000 per enterprise - Seas At Risk and other environmental organisations strongly oppose such an increase.
A 500 tonne cargo of suspected illegally caught fish worth millions of Euros has been seized by Spanish authorities, adding to a 600 tonne catch already being investigated in the port.
Commissioner Damanaki has announced that the long awaited Commission proposal for a reformed Common Fisheries Policy will be ready on the 13th of July. Parliament and Council will then decide on the contents through the ordinary legislative procedure.
Seas At Risk and 88 other European and international organisations have called on President Barroso to honour the Commission’s commitment to end environmentally harmful subsidies.
At a meeting of Fisheries Ministers and Members of the European Parliament, Ministers from Denmark, France, Germany and the UK all gave their support to Commissioner Maria Damanaki’s call for a ban on discards.
Commissioner Damanaki is meeting Fisheries Ministers and Members of the European Parliament for a discussion on discarding, the current wasteful practice of throwing unwanted or over-quota caught fish back into the sea.
The expansion of what are commonly known as ‘dead zones’ in the world's oceans are growing in size and consequentially further exposing certain fish stocks to higher levels of overfishing, a new study has found.
In a meeting organised by MEPs Chris Davies and Carl Haglund, Members of the European Parliament were urged to jointly engage in the process of reforming the Common Fisheries Policy after they were reminded that fisheries are a societal issue, affecting a wide variety of stakeholders and interests.
As part of a project evaluation, FISH and Seas At Risk have produced a short survey regarding the briefings they provide before all EU Fisheries Council meetings: Continue reading to give your feedback.
As an example of the project, the briefing - that has been sent out to all Fisheries Ministers, their advisors, several hundred other decision-makers and stakeholders before the December 2010 Council meeting - can be seen by following the links below. The survey takes approximately 5-10 minutes. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. To fill in the survey
The December briefingEU Fisheries Ministers have reached an agreement on 2011 TACs and quotas following the EC's proposals in several instances, but also penning lower cuts and even increases for some stocks, doing away with the scientific advice and putting several fragile fisheries in jeopardy.
In an open letter sent out to Ministers ahead of the December EU Fisheries Council meeting, Seas At Risk and the Fisheries Secretariat have called on Ministers to follow scientific advice on the majority of the fishing quotas for 2011.
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