Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 10 • Number 4 • 5th March 2010

MEPs Say Abandon “Top-Down” Approach to Fisheries

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European Parliamentarians are urging the EU to adopt a more decentralised approach to fisheries management when it comes to redrafting the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The non-binding report, adopted by European Parliament on 25 February, aims to be a contribution to a wider public discussion on how the CFP should be overhauled.

“Fisheries management must abandon the traditional ‘top-down approach’, instead emphasising regionalisation, subsidiarity and stakeholder involvement, to reflect the local particularities of Europe’s seas and fleets,” the Members of European Parliament (MEPs) said in a statement.

The MEPs are asking that the new CFP also include a new management model that includes national quotas for member states in addition to the existing system of total allowable catches (TACs) to help eliminate the discarding of unwanted by-catch.

Environmentalists and the fisheries industry have long argued that the current rules are ineffective and wasteful. Because rules governing quotas are based on quantities at the point of landing, less profitable fish and fish caught over-quota are often dumped back into the sea - even if they are dead.

The report also urges policymakers to consider updating the criteria used to establish historical fishing rights, to create incentives for a establishing a robust environmentally sustainable aquaculture sector, and to introduce an eco-labelling programme aimed at boosting the image of fish products and promoting healthy food.

Since its creation in 1983, the CFP has been reviewed every 10 years (for information on the 2002 CFP reform see Bridges Trade BioRes, 23 January 2003, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/8750/). The next review is scheduled for 2012 and it is expected that the entire policy will be overhauled. The move comes as alarming data suggests that 90 percent of EU fish stocks are being unsustainably exploited and that a third of those stocks may never recover.

The report was approved by an overwhelming margin (456 votes in favour, 50 against, and 65 abstentions). However, some MEPs expressed reservations over the possibility of losing access to historical fishing rights and a lack of emphasis on sustainable fishing.

While the MEP’s views will be only a contributing factor into the reform White Paper, under the Lisbon Treaty - which entered into force in December 2009 - Parliamentarians now have equal say with national government on fisheries policy.

In May 2009, EU fisheries ministers also recommended that the CFP be radically overhauled and decentralised (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 29 May 2009, http://ictsd.org/i/news/biores/47636/).

ICTSD Reporting; “MEPs vote to end Brussels meddling with fisheries,” TIMES ONLINE, 26 February 2010.