New fisheries proposals add to confusion

Date: 27/02/1997

By Michael Mann

FISHERIES Commissioner Emma Bonino has taken the unusual step of launching new proposals in a bid to solve the bitter ongoing dispute over planned reductions in the EU's fishing fleet.

But some diplomats claim a new paper which Bonino outlined to fellow European Commissioners and presented to Union governments last week “provided lots of questions but few answers”.

Although the latest approach is supposed to add flexibility to the so-called fourth Multi-Annual Guidance Programme (MAGPIV), it appears instead to have added to the confusion.

Arguably an even bigger problem is the fact that the Commission has toughened up the catch reduction targets set out in the proposals put forward by the Irish presidency at December's meeting of fisheries ministers.

Where Dublin was proposing 20&percent; cuts in the amount of fish caught over three years, Bonino's paper raises them to 30&percent;. Similarly, proposed 15&percent; reductions have risen to 20&percent;.

Central to Bonino's thinking is the need to give national authorities more leeway to decide on fleet and effort reduction programmes themselves, rather than having them imposed from above.

“They will have to achieve the same fishing mortality targets, but will have to do their own national plans. It will not be up to the Commission. Now the member states will be given the responsibility,” said one official.

Secondly, Bonino is looking to ensure that whatever is agreed can actually be carried through and, most importantly, that it is irreversible. Finally, provision will be made for new vessels to be constructed, but only so long as this does not lead to an increase in fishing capacity in those sectors of the fleet taking the most threatened stocks.

The Commission has drawn up a scheme by country and by fleet sector setting out how many vessels should be decommissioned for each new one built. This would also ensure that technological improvements do not create new overcapacity.

Even though they recognise that individual countries have to be offered more flexibility if the MAGP is to be acceptable, member state experts believe the latest paper has merely added to the complexity of what was already a nightmarish scheme.

In spite of the less than glowing reception given to her ideas in an initial exchange of views last week, Bonino is still pushing hard for a deal on the broad outlines of the MAGP at the ministerial meeting which gets under way on 14 April.

“Even if this approach is rejected, the most important thing is that a decision is taken in April,” said a spokesman for Bonino. He stressed that time was running out for the EU's fishing fleet to be prepared for the challenges to come.

“We need to ensure a future for at least some fishermen which is viable. The industry must become cost-effective and efficient, and develop from a question of cultural heritage into a truly business-minded sector,” he added.

Officials from the 13 member states with an interest in the MAGP will have their first chance to consider the detail of the new approach next Thursday (6 March) before it is passed to Coreper (the EU's Committee of permanent representatives).

The Dutch presidency is uncertain as to how it will proceed, given that the Commission has taken it upon itself to update the proposals it originally put forward last June. “We are talking to our partners before we decide what to do,” said an official.