Policies
Committee on Fisheries
- The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)
- The EPP and the Future Reform of the CFP
- 1. Management
- 2. Control and application
- 3. Structural aspect
- 4. Market policy
- 5. International fisheries relations
- 6. Aquaculture
- 7. Governance
- 8. Transparency in the Lawmaking process
- 9. The environmental aspect of the CFP
- 10. Research
- 11. Integrated Maritime Policy
As the Community was created to ensure peace and promote prosperity in Europe, among the policies adopted to achieve these goals was the encouragement of economic development in regions suffering from a lack of jobs and opportunities. The EPP Group firmly believes that fisheries and aquaculture have an important role to play in implementing this policy of economic and social cohesion. The two sectors employ 526,034 people, both men and women, and their combined production value (fisheries, aquaculture, processing and marketing) amounted to 5.3 million tonnes in 2006 (the EU has the second biggest fisheries sector in the world, after China and Peru).
So, a common fisheries policy (CFP) is essential to the European Union. This policy must cover the biological, economic and social dimensions of fisheries.
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)
The CFP consists of four aspects which centre on the following areas:
- conservation of resources and control of fishing activities: protecting fish stocks by regulating the quantity of fish caught;
- structural measures to adapt and modernise the sector: helping fisheries and aquaculture sectors to adapt their equipment and structure;
- market-oriented measures and commercial policy: maintaining a common market organisation for fisheries products;
- external fisheries policy: setting up fisheries partnership agreements and negotiating common measures for protecting offshore fishing on a national level within regional and international fisheries organisations.
The EPP and the Future Reform of the CFP
The EPP Group considers that the reform of the CFP will need to be based on three core principles (a threefold operating imperative): protection and conservation of fish stocks (environmental dimension); a decent livelihood for fishing operators (social dimension); economic profitability of fisheries (economic dimension). The EPP believes that management must be expressly decentralised, taking into account the specific features of regions and fisheries and involving all operators in the sector so as to create the conditions required for an effective policy of compliance and greater responsibility, without which it will be impossible to place stocks on a sustainable footing.
The EPP considers that the financial resources to be negotiated within the framework of the new multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020 should include an increased CFP budget that will create the financial conditions required for the full implementation and practical development of the reform guidelines that have been adopted.
1. Management: the need for responsible fisheries management
The recovery of stocks and their sustainable management must remain a priority for the Common Fisheries Policy, implying a need to consider and determine the most appropriate ways of proceeding. To date TACs and quotas have been the main management tool, but have not invariably proved best suited to that purpose. The point therefore needs to be discussed thoroughly and in depth, focusing on alternative ways of ensuring that Community fish stocks can attain levels enabling maximum sustainable yield to be achieved by 2015 – in keeping with the EU’s pledge at the 2002 Johannesburg Summit.
The EPP Group has reaffirmed the need for fish stocks to recover. The Group considers that the issue of the pressure exerted on resources by fishing activity cannot be addressed by seeking a uniform, global solution. On the contrary, the unique characteristics of each fisheries zone must be taken into account along with the specific features of the various fish species, particularly their life cycles; at the same time, the social importance of the fishing industry must not be forgotten.
The EPP Group deplores the waste of high-quality proteins in the form of fish discards and has called for a system to be implemented to eliminate or substantially reduce such discards. Lastly, the EPP Group has also stressed the importance of taking an integrated approach to the management of maritime and coastal areas.
2. Control and application: ensuring correct application of the rules as the basis of a successful fisheries policy
The EPP Group notes that IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) fishing is a form of unfair competition that seriously harms all European fishermen who comply with Community, national and third-country legislation and carry out their activity in a responsible way. For this reason, the EPP calls for a more comprehensive policy to make Member States take greater responsibility and considers it essential for EU and national fisheries funding to be channelled, in a flexible manner, only into activities and measures which are based on ecologically, economically and socially sustainable fisheries.
3. Structural aspect: contributing to the purpose of the CFP and strengthening
The EPP Group is aware that the reduction of the fleet involves an enormous socio-economic sacrifice and we believe that although it is necessary to reach an optimum balance between the fleet and the resources available in Community waters, this must not be done without any regard for consequences nor must it be to the detriment of the economic and social sector that depends on fisheries. The EPP Group takes the view that the present EFF and future structural funds for the fisheries sector must continue to support fleet renewal and modernisation, above all with regard to small-scale coastal and artisanal fishing, since this support is based on criteria of safety (which minimise occupational accidents), hygiene and comfort, as well as environmental protection, fuel economy and other criteria which do not involve any increase in fishing capacity for the fleets concerned.
The EPP supports, also, different treatment for the high-sea fisheries sectors and those whose structure and business capabilities are more on a par with other economic activities, and for smaller-scale fisheries with closer links to coastal areas and specific markets, a lower unit production volume and different cost and employment structures.
4. Market policy: guaranteeing sustainable fishing activity and ensuring the sector’s future
The EPP Group believes that an urgent far-reaching revision of the COM in fisheries products should be carried out in order to boost its contribution to guaranteeing earnings in the sector, ensuring market stability, improving the marketing of fisheries products and increasing the value added generated and stresses the need to create mechanisms to promote the concentration of supply, in particular by setting-up and revitalising producers’ organisations.
Finally, the EPP Group called for the definition of new methods to improve the quality of fish products, in order to initiate specific promotional campaigns for Community products, both traditional and new, including an ecological EU labelling system to lay down requirements in terms of durability.
5. International fisheries relations: integrating the CFP in the Union's foreign policy
The EPP Group stresses the international dimension of the CFP and calls for the external aspect to give special attention to the environmental problems in third countries, with particular emphasis on preserving developing countries’ biodiversity. The Group also believes that the European Union must ensure its Common Fisheries Policy is in line with its development and cooperation policy and that it supports the latter when acting on its principal strategic objective -namely poverty reduction in developing countries.
The EPP Group maintains that the Community should establish a stronger presence in RFMOs, the FAO, the UN and other international organisations, with a view to promoting sustainable management of international fisheries, combating illegal fishing, ensuring greater protection of marine ecosystems and safeguarding the future of fisheries activities.
6. Aquaculture: an increasingly important sector
The EPP Group firmly believes that the aquaculture sector, with a total of 1.3 million tonnes of fisheries products per year, must play a role in supplying the EU market.
The EPP emphasises that the success of sustainable aquaculture will depend on an enterprise-friendly environment at national and/or local level and that Member States and regional authorities should be able to count on a suitable Community framework for the harmonious development of the sector and the realisation of its full wealth and job creation potential that gives preference to fishermen whose activities are in decline. The EPP stresses the importance of providing funding to aquaculture enterprises regardless of their size, the main criterion being their contribution to the social and economic development of coastal life.
7. Governance: increased participation of the sector and interested parties in decision-making
The EPP Group believes that despite the progress achieved in terms of strengthening dialogue with interested parties, the fisheries sector consultation during the CFP reform in 2002 clearly showed that more must be done. To respond to this lack, the EPP Group maintains that Regional Advisory Councils (RACs), as well as other stakeholders and the assessments made by the Community Fisheries Control Agency, should play a more active role, both during and after the CFP reform process, and that these bodies should be placed in a position, logistically and financially, to exercise their updated responsibilities.
8. Transparency in the Lawmaking process
After the come into force of the Lisbon Treaty which gives to the EP the status of co-olegislator, togheter with the Council, in the Fisheries Policy, the EPP Group asks for a reasonable use, in the proposals made by the Commission in the field of the CFP, the possibility to provide for the delegation of powers to or confer implementing powers on (Article 291(2)), the Commission – strictly limited to the conditions foreseen by the Treaty for the use of such procedures and respectful of the powers and prerogatives of the EP.
Finally, the EPP calls for a faithful implementation of Article 218(10) of the ToL concerning the obligation to keep the EP “immediately and fully informed at all stages of the procedure”, concerning the conclusion of international agreements in the field of the CFP and fully support the admission of representatives from the EP as observers in meetings of the Joint Committees convened under the provisions of bilateral fisheries partnership agreements.
9. The environmental aspect of the CFP
The EPP Group is of the opinion that the European Union should formally support new methods aimed at reducing the impact of fisheries on the marine environment, which is affected, in some cases, by over-exploitation and waste of resources. At the same time, the socio-economic consequences that these methods inevitably produce in the short term must be taken into account. The deterioration of the marine environment is not solely down to fishing activities, given that marine resources are the first to be negatively affected by the enormous impact of human and industrial activity.
10. Research: imperative for responsible fishing
EPP Group stresses that scientific fisheries research is an essential tool for fisheries management that is indispensable for identifying the factors that influence the development of fishery resources, for carrying out a quantitative assessment and developing models that make it possible to forecast their development, and also for improving fishing gear, vessels and working and safety conditions for fishermen, in conjunction with their knowledge and experience.
11. Integrated Maritime Policy: a Union maritime policy for the oceans and seas
The EPP Group considers that the CFP requires a global approach to the management of fish stocks and must be coordinated with environmental and development policies and the IMP (Integrated Maritime Policy) and, believes that fishing activity should be suitably integrated and structured within a wider context of maritime activities such as maritime transport, marine tourism, offshore wind farms and aquaculture.
Finally, the EPP highlights the need to earmark adequate financial resources for the IMP and reiterates the principle that new priorities must be matched by new funding; rejects the notion that the IMP should be financed from the EFF.
