Fisheries policy ‘too green’, says lobby group

Date: 01/08/01

By David Cronin

Too much emphasis is placed on environmental and conservation issues in the European Commission's suggested reforms of the common fisheries policy (CFP), according to a leading fishermen's lobby group.

In a critique of the CFP green paper, which the Commission unveiled earlier this year, Europeche contends that it "fails to understand" why the Union's executive is "apparently giving priority to the environmental aspects of fishing" to the point of strengthening the laws covering marine activities. "A lot of the green paper is too green for us," said spokesman Guy Vernaeve. "The concerns of NGOs [non-governmental organisations] seem to have been regarded as more important than those of fishermen. We feel that the environment shouldn't have been emphasised as much and that other issues affecting fishermen's livelihood should have been taken into account."

EU fisheries chief Franz Fischler has asked interested parties to submit their proposals on the green paper by the end of September. According to Fischler, the aim of this consultation process is to devise plans for helping the industry emerge from the "spiral of decline" caused by the over-exploitation of fish stocks in Union waters.

Europeche has also argued that the so-called multi-annual guidance programmes (MAGPs), which require major restructuring of the fishing fleets in many member states, should be scrapped. While it acknowledges that some fleets have been catching too many fish, it argues that any reductions forced on the sector - especially in the Mediterranean - should be more targeted. "The MAGPs are too complicated and arbitrary," added Vernaeve.

Europeche is due to draft recommendations for alternatives in the autumn.

One idea it is examining is a "blue set-aside" system to discourage fishing in certain zones.

Too much emphasis is placed on environmental and conservation issues in the European Commission's suggested reforms of the common fisheries policy (CFP), according to a leading fishermen's lobby group.