BBC News, 6
February 2013
 |
| More data is needed about species to make Europe's fishing more sustainable |
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Stories
The
European Parliament has voted for sweeping reforms of the controversial EU
Common Fisheries Policy.
The package
includes measures to protect endangered stocks and end discards - the practice
of throwing unwanted dead fish into the sea.
Wasteful
discards are reckoned to account for a quarter of total catches under the
current quota system.
There are
hopes that the changes can become law by next year, after more talks with the
27 EU governments.
The MEPs
voted for the package by 502 votes to 137.
The Greens
in parliament called the vote "historic". Spokeswoman Isabella Lovin
said it would "finally put the EU's fisheries policy on a sustainable
footing".
A fishing
alliance, Europeche, says the reforms are too sudden and too radical.
With an
estimated 75% of Europe’s stocks overfished, there has been enormous public and
media pressure over this latest attempt to shake up the CFP.
The reform package was presented to the full parliament in Strasbourg by the German Social
Democrat MEP Ulrike Rodust.
She said
the reforms “will bring an end to the December ritual of fisheries ministers
negotiating until 4am, neglecting scientific advice and setting too high
fishing quotas.
“As of
2015, the principle of maximum sustainable yield shall apply, which means that
each year we do not harvest more fish than a stock can reproduce. Our objective
is that depleted fish stocks recover by 2020. Not only nature will benefit, but
also fishermen: bigger stocks produce higher yields.”
She said
fishermen had to be helped through a transitional period as fishing capacity
shrank to allow stocks to recover.
Parliamentary
clout
MEPs are
sharing power with the Council - the EU governments - on fisheries policy for
the first time. There is still some dispute about the amount of influence MEPs
can exert over fishing quotas.
Under the
new proposals, the EU will shift from the current bargaining over quotas - a
system often attacked by environmental groups - to fishing based on
"maximum sustainable yield" (MSY).
The phasing
in of MSY depends on collecting more scientific data about the rate at which
different marine species reproduce.
The
environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the MEPs' vote on Wednesday, saying the
reforms would help to promote small-scale and low-impact fishing methods.
Greenpeace
says small-scale fishing vessels measuring 12m (40ft) or less make up about 80%
of the European fishing sector and usually cause less environmental harm.
The group's
spokesperson on EU fisheries policy, Saskia Richartz, called it "a
momentous shift away from overfishing".
"National
governments that stand in the way of reform, like Spain and France, will find
it increasingly hard to act as proxies for a handful of powerful companies,
with no concern for the long-term wellbeing of the oceans or the majority of
fishermen," she said.
Atlantic
bluefin tuna is the most overfished species in European waters.
But the
environmental group WWF says EU fisheries have also faced a 32% decline in
stocks of cod, plaice and sole since 1993.
The fish
catch in the North Sea has slumped from 3.5m tonnes in 1995 to 1.5m tonnes in
2007, WWF reports.
The UK
Conservatives' fisheries spokesman, Struan Stevenson MEP, said "these
reforms will be wresting control away from the micro-managers in Brussels who
have made such an absolute mess of fisheries policy for the past 30
years".
"We
will also see an urgent timetable set for an absolute ban on the scandal of
dumping and discards."
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EU Parliament backs fishing practices reform
Pirate fishermen sell illegal haul to Europeans
Is the EU taking its over-fishing habits to west African waters?
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