By Euan Dunn, Principal Marine Advisor
Strasbourg, Wed 23 October
Today in Strasbourg the European Parliament gave a massive boost to the future of Europe’s fisheries by voting against using taxpayers’ money to build new fishing vessels. The vote was carried by a substantial majority of 373:301. UK MEPs across the political spectrum were against constructing new vessels.
In so doing, MEPs overturned the July vote of their own Fisheries Committee to grant public aid to fleet renewal. In advance of the Strasbourg vote, Commissioner Damanaki had warned that a vote for building new fishing vessels would have reversed the decision taken by the Common Fisheries Policy ten years ago to halt such aid, and would just lead to more boats chasing fewer fish.
This is fantastic news, greatly welcomed by the NGOs who have mounted a concerted campaign to rally MEPs to vote the right way. If the European Parliament had diverted scarce public funds to stoking the already bloated EU fishing fleet they would have driven a stake into the heart of hopes for restoring the fortunes of our fish stocks, the wider marine environment and the viability of fishing communities. Instead, the European Parliament has done the right thing today, and put its money where its mouth was in February when they voted overwhelmingly for progressive reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
There is broad agreement that the EU has been subsidising a build-up of excessive fishing capacity, estimated by the Commission for some fisheries to be two to three times above the level compatible with sustainable fishing. Scientists advise that 88% of fish stocks in the Mediterranean and 39% of those in the North-east Atlantic are overfished.
There were pros and cons in the other measures voted through by the Parliament. They voted in favour of funding engine replacement (albeit only for small-scale vessels) which could still lead to increased fishing pressure, but on the plus side there was a majority in favour of spending more on data collection, a much needed measure at a time when the state of around half of North-east Atlantic fish stocks are still not scientifically assessed.
Now that the European Parliament has had its say, negotiations to finalise the new EMFF (which will dictate how money is spent on fishing till 2020) now enter ‘trilogue’ between the Parliament, Council and Commission so that a new funding policy can be agreed and put in place by Spring 2014.
We’ll keep you posted ......