Call for huge cuts in EU fishing fleet

Date: 30/05/1996

THE capacity of the EU salmon fishing fleet would be cut in half by the end of 2002 under proposals put forward by Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino.

In plans for the fourth Multiannual Guidance Programme (MAGP) unveiled yesterday (29 May), the Commission is also calling for 40&percent; cuts in the capacity of vessels fishing a number of other key stocks, including deep-sea species in the Baltic, North Sea and western waters, all stocks in the Irish Sea, and several stocks around the Iberian coast.

Indeed, little of the Union's fishing fleet would remain untouched by the measures, under which compensation would be provided for the decommissioning of fishing boats under the financial instrument for fisheries guidance and the Pesca initiative.

So serious are the problems facing certain stocks that, in most cases, reductions in fleet size would be concentrated on the first half of the six-year programme, which lasts from the beginning of 1997 to the end of 2002.

Unveiling the plans, Bonino claimed that “too much fishing will kill off the fishing”, adding that further cuts were necessary to allow the industry to remain profitable and to sustain employment in coastal regions dependent on fishing.

The Commission is calling on ministers to take particularly tough action on trawler fleets chasing deep-water species. It says cuts of 12&percent; will even have to be made for stocks in balance to compensate for future technological advances.

The programme aims to proceed more gently against coastal fisheries, which the Commission believes support a large number of jobs with a relatively modest uptake of fish.

Funding for the programmes has been finalised until the end of 1999, when the current Structural Fund regime ends.

How much money will be available for the last three years of the programme will only emerge once the budget for Structural Funds for the start of next century has been negotiated.

Ministers must adopt the guidelines by September, before these are converted into individual MAGPs for the 13 member states which have fishing fleets. The UK and the Netherlands recently came under fire for failing to reach targets set under the current MAGP.

The proposals are based on the findings of an independent panel chaired by Danish fisheries expert Hans Lassen and the Commission's own scientific, technical and economic committee for fisheries.

They are certain to spark an outcry among hard-pressed European fishermen.