EU agree to more regional control of fishing

In an eleventh hour compromise, calls for discards to be completely outlawed in European waters by 2019 have been shelved and Member States will be allowed to seek an exemption to allow up to 5 per cent of their fleet’s catches to still be dumped overboard.

But, in a major boost for the Scottish fishing industry, the negotiators have rubber stamped plans for an end to fisheries micromanagement by Brussels bureaucrats and a new system of devolved decision making.

Simon Coveney, the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who led the negotiations under the Irish Presidency of the European Union, said the new agreement would “change the lives of millions of people across the European Union” and protect the valuable marine resource in European waters.

He declared: “These decisions are really significant and will impact on the sustainability of fishing into the future and for future generations.”

Mr Coveney explained: “We have learned lessons from the existing Common Fisheries Policy which in some areas has failed fishing communities and has failed fish stocks in terms of their protection.

“We have taken two years to design a new model for the next ten years which, in my view, is a radical but also practical fisheries policy for the future that will protect fishing communities and millions of people across the European Union and also, most importantly, ensure that the next generation of coastal communities and fishermen will have stocks to fish that will be in a better state than they are now.”

Regional

He said the new system of regional decision-making would allow fishermen, fishing industry and NGO representatives to have a “direct impact” on fishing policy in their areas. The new CFP, he added, would also involve a new approach to fleet capacity management by matching fleet size with available stocks and the creation of new protection areas where fish spawn or where large numbers of juvenile fish are present.

Mr Coveney added: “It will change in quite a radical way, for the better, the way we fish - both for fishermen and for marine resources.”

Maria Damanaki, the European Fisheries Commissioner, hailed the agreement as “a historical step for all those involved in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors.”

Fish stocks

She said: “We are going to change radically the way we fish in the future. We are paving the way for a sustainable future for our fishermen and our industry.We are going to do that by bringing fish stocks above sustainable levels, by aligning our fishing opportunities with scientific advice, by stopping discarding, catching fish and throwing it back dead into the sea and by stopping all other wasteful practices.”

And she continued: “We are also going to apply the same principles when we are fishing abroad. We will fully respect international law and our commitments.

“And we are going to stop having all the decision-making taking place in Brussels. Micromanagement will not be the way we operate anymore. We are going for regionalisation, to work together with the regional authorities and stakeholders to find specific and tailor-made solutions for each problem.

“Lastly, we are going to change our market policy by providing better information for the consumers so our fishermen can get for the fish the price it deserves.”

Ms Damanaki added: “The CFP reform is a powerful driver for growth and jobs, at a time when Europe most needs it. It is a radical change that can give us hope, growth and jobs.”

Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Fisheries Minister, welcomed the new agreement. He said: “At long last Europe has agreed plan to ban scandal of fish discards - tough to implement but right the thing to do . Scots are already leading the way.”