Challenge to scale of cuts in fisheries

Date: 10/10/1996

By Michael Mann

GENERAL agreement on cuts in the EU's fishing fleet now looks unlikely before December at the earliest, even though the Irish presidency insists a deal is still possible in November.

Ministers will do little more than discuss a number of principles underlying Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino's plans when they meet in Luxembourg next Monday (14 October).

Horrified by the extent of the proposed reductions in capacity, member states will use the first fisheries meeting under the chairmanship of Irish minister Sean Barrett to challenge the assumptions on which the fourth Multi-Annual Guidance Programme (MAGPIV) is based.

Top of the list of concerns is the depth of the cuts proposed by Bonino in May.

The Commission is calling for a 40&percent; reduction in capacity for fleets hunting a number of key stocks, including deep-sea fisheries in the Baltic, North Sea and western waters, all stocks in the Irish Sea and several around the Iberian coast.

The Commission has been trying to sell the measure by claiming that the cuts are less dramatic than they seem. It has based its thinking on the assumption that fishing boats will increase efficiency by 2&percent; per annum. Over the six years of the 1997-2002 MAGP, the Commission claims, a 40&percent; cut would only really amount to 28&percent;.

But one diplomat stressed this week: “The member states have not agreed on these figures.”

Everyone will be concerned to ensure that the programme does not affect the Common Fisheries Policy's central concept of 'relative stability', under which each country's fleet maintains its historical share of each quota.

Currently behind its targets under the existing round of fleet cuts, the UK government will also demand that 'effort reduction' becomes an integral part of the MAGP, rather than merely an option.

The UK's last attempt at this - its ill-fated 'days-at-sea' scheme under which the amount of time each vessel could operate was restricted - was scuppered by the length of an ultimately unsuccessful legal challenge from fishing unions.

“Most countries are against making days at sea compulsory. It really does not look a strong runner,” commented an official.

Member states are also concerned about the Commission's plans for dividing up the capacity cuts, particularly the principle that reductions in zones where a number of species are hunted should be based on the most threatened variety, preventing fishermen from pursuing other stocks which are in little or no danger.

In typical style, several ministers will try to encourage Bonino to raise the minimum size of vessels exempted from the plan. Derogations are intended to ensure the survival of small-scale coastal fisheries in the Union's poorest regions.

Although compensation for fishermen affected by the cuts is due to be financed out of existing structural funding, member states are also seeking assurances that EU money will still be available after 1999, when the current financing period expires.

For the presidency, “the socio- economic question is the biggest thing”, according to Irish officials.

Ministers will also make obvious connections with another proposal to standardise the equipment carried by fishing vessels, arguing that changes to “technical conservation measures” could offer a way of easing the brunt of capacity reductions.

This proposal has caused much anger since it was circulated in June. Officials have been unable to trawl all the way through the details, so ministers will not debate the issue in any depth.

The meeting could prove particularly controversial for the Dutch, the British and the Irish presidency itself, who will all be told that they had not reached their existing fleet reduction targets by the end of 1995.

But Irish officials remain optimistic that they will reach their goal by the end of this year.

With marathon ministerial meetings looming in both November and December, ministers may at least be able to agree on two outstanding proposals this time around. Deals are likely on plans to standardise the grading of fish marketed in the EU and on a system of satellite monitoring of fishing boats in some Union waters.