Commission says EU fishing rules flouted

EU fishing rules are being ignored across Europe, according to a report from the European Commission this week.

The report on national implementation of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is the first published since governments agreed wide-ranging fisheries reforms in 2002.

"Compliance with key CFP rules remains poor in many fisheries," says the report, pointing out that total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas are still routinely ignored for many species.

A programme to bring the North Sea cod - a priority area for the CFP - back to sustainable levels is said to have failed to change fishing habits. "The cod recovery scheme was implemented in a manner that would cause minimum disturbance to fishing activity," according to the report.

There were also found to be "virtually no catch registration systems" in place for bluefin tuna, a species widely feared to be in danger of extinction.

Member states have proved reluctant to change traditional marketing activities in line with CFP rules. According to the Commission, "the implementation of the EU grading standards was not a priority and such standards were applied and controlled only when they did not disturb the local operators and practices".

Fishermen were reported to be submitting faulty catch reports, while the monitoring of non-EU vessels was "either ignored or carried out in a haphazard manner".

Vessels were also found using illegal drift nets in parts of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Drift nets were banned in 2002 because of fears they were killing birdlife and sea mammals.

The Commission says that the national reports were impossible to compare, because of the lack of a standard format and list of required information. A standard EU-wide report will be proposed by the end of the year.

Fishermen have reacted with anger to the report. Bertie Armstrong of the Scottish Fisherman’s Federation, representing the second largest fishing industry sector in Europe, said that the lack of comparable EU-wide data seemed to have led the Commission to make "awful assumptions".

"There is no systematic law-breaking going on," said Armstrong. "That is not to say there aren’t some burglars in the population, but we are down to a very low level of infringements."

In particular, he questioned the Commission’s claim that the cod recovery plan was having little effect on the industry. "How does only fishing for 12 days out of 30 cause ‘minimum disturbance’? We have decommissioned 60% of our fleet in response to the plan, is that ‘minimum disturbance’?"

Armstrong added that he welcomed the "Commission’s plans to standardise the annual report format". "The fishing industry will do everything it can to help."

EU fishing rules are being ignored across Europe, according to a report from the European Commission this week.