On 22 April, the European Commission adopted a Green Paper on the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. The Green Paper provides a state of play and analyses the shortcomings of the current policy and launches a public consultation on how these shortcomings should be addressed, kicking off a reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
The European Commission has stressed that “European fish stocks have been overfished for decades and the fishing fleets remain too large for the available resources” pointing out that “The outcome has been a continuous decrease in the amounts of seafood fished from Europe’s waters: more than half of the fish consumed on the European market is now imported.”
Having referred to the changes made to the CFP in 2002, the Commission noted that “the objectives agreed in 2002 to achieve sustainable fisheries have not been met overall” due to over exploitation of stocks, fleet overcapacity, heavy subsidies, limited economic resilience and a considerable decline in catches by European fishermen.
The Commission identifies five structural problems in the CFP as implemented since 2002: fishing fleet overcapacity, vague policy objectives that result in a lack of guidelines for decision making and implementation, a decision making system that is too focused on the short term, a framework that does not give sufficient responsibility to the industry and poor compliance with regulations.
The European Commission has therefore recognized that the CFP is not working and has resulted in disturbing levels of overfishing. Everybody knows for a long time that the CFP does not work. The Commission took a while to admit it, too little too late! The British fishing industry is falling apart. The catch restrictions have been leading to millions of tons of dead fish being dumped back into the sea. The measures for fishery resources management, and the total allowable catch (TAC) and quota system are not operating effectively. The UK whitefish fishing fleet has been scrapped by 60 per cent and thousand of jobs have been already lost.
According to the European Commission “a fundamental reform of the CFP and remobilization of the sector can bring about the dramatic change that is needed to reverse the current situation.” However, the time has come to repatriate fisheries policies to Westminster.
According to the Commission, fleet overcapacity is the “fundamental problem” of the CFP. The Commission referred to measures aimed at reducing the EU fishing fleet such as funding for vessel scrapping schemes. However, it has recognised that “permanent support for scrapping does not effectively reduce capacity, as operators simply factor the scrapping premium into future investment decisions." It has suggested that transferable fishing rights might be a “more efficient and less expensive way to reduce overcapacity.” The Commission has therefore stressed that it is imperative for the new CFP to create mechanisms to ensure that the “fleet size is adapted and remains proportionate to available fish stocks.” It seems that the Commission is planning to drastically cut the EU's fishing fleet capacity.
According to the Commission the fact that all the CFP decisions are taken at the Council level has resulted in “a focus on short-term considerations at the expense of the longer term environmental, economic and social sustainability of European fisheries.” The Commission is planning to re-evaluate the present approach on micro-management as it has admitted that Brussels micro-management has failed.
One of the options consider by the Commission would be to delegate more of the existing detailed management to the Commission through the so-called comitology procedure. However, such approach might grant too many powers to the Commission. Another option would be to rely “on specific regional management solutions implemented by Member States, subject to Community standards and control.” The Commission believes that if the major principles and objectives are left to the Council’s and the European Parliament competence and implementation and technical rules decided by the Commission, the member states or even the regions and local authorities, this would lead to a simpler and cheaper policy. Moreover, the member states and the industry would be able to adapt “the implementation of the policy to their needs and to find the best solutions both technically and economically.”
The Commission acknowledges that “Bringing and keeping the capacity of the fishing fleets in line with fishing opportunities will inevitably lead to less overall employment in the catching sector.” It will therefore consider how fleet capacity can be adapted whilst addressing the social concerns faced by coastal communities and taking into account the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises. One option might be to have differentiated management regimes, one for large-scale fleets and another for small-scale fleets in coastal communities. The small-scale coastal fisheries would be managed through direct allocation of quotas. Public funding would be used to help small-scale coastal fisheries to adapt to changing conditions in the wake of the CFP reform.
The Commission recalls that most EC fisheries are managed by setting Total Allowable Catches (TACs) of which each Member State obtains a national quota. The Commission has recognised that such system creates “unwanted by-catches when the quota of one species is exhausted while quotas for other species remain, which leaves fishermen with no choice but to discard the fish which they are no longer allowed to land.” The Commission believes by limiting the days a fishing vessel can go to sea would remove the discard problem.
The Commission pointed out that relative stability is a principle of the CFP since 1983, under which each Member States’ share of each Community quota should remain constant over time. According to the Commission “Relative stability has had the merit of establishing a mechanism to distribute fishing opportunities among Member States.” However, “After more than twenty-five years of policy and changes in fishing patterns, there is now a considerable discrepancy between the quotas allocated to Member States and the actual needs and uses of their fleets.” According to the Commission the principle of relative stability limits the flexibility to manage in several different ways. The fishing sector has limited flexibility to make efficient use of its resources. Moreover, it has been contributing to discards.
The Commission wants to reshape relative stability to better contribute to the objectives of the CFP. The Commission is considering replacing relative stability with a more flexible system, such as allocation of fishing rights or to “align national quotas with the real needs of national fleets.” The Commission is suggesting replacing the system of national quotas and awarded quotas directly to fishermen individually.
Richard Laming from the Federal Union blog has said that “This creates a direct relationship between the EU and the citizen, rather than having that relationship intermediated by national governments. This is the essence of federalism.”
In the meantime, French Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Michel Barnier, reacting to the Green Paper, has already stressed that there is no question of dismantling the Common Fisheries Policy or the quota system. He said “I am against all forms of deregulation that would place small-scale fishing and quotas at the mercy of market forces.”
According to the Commission public financial support to fisheries often contradicts with CFP objectives, such as the need to reduce overcapacity. The European Fisheries Fund is distributed taking into account the regional convergence criteria and not the composition of the European fleet and its structural deficiencies. Hence, the reform will ensure that there is a closer link between public funding, particularly the European Fisheries Fund, and the objectives of the policy.
Moreover, the Commission pointed out that the new CFP would also meet social and environmental concerns, fit into the EU maritime affairs policy and contribute to the sustainable nature of fisheries.
This Green Paper is the basis of a public debate on the future CFP. The Commission will present conclusions on the direction of the CFP reform on the first half of 2010 and will then draft a proposal for a regulation in the context of the new Financial Framework. It remains to be seen which proposals the Commission will put forward and if the Member States are willing to accept them.
