EU fisheries policy implementation

Do European countries promote low-impact and fair fishing?

Publication - February 11, 2015
The CFP, recently reformed in 2014, requires European countries to end overfishing, to better manage their national fishing fleets and to promote a shift towards selective and low-impact fishing methods. The new CFP has delivered substantial progress on paper but its success relies on the political will of national governments to apply these rules back home.

The Common fisheries policy (CFP) has been in force for over a year now, and Greenpeace looked at the main fishing countries in Europe and what they have achieved so far (click to access tables) (4 February 2015), focusing in particular on the reduction - where necessary - of their fishing capacity and the promotion of selective and low impact fishing.

European countries have always been responsible for deciding how to allocate their available fishing opportunities* to their own fishermen. In the new CFP, this responsibility is confirmed but it is also limited by Article 17 of the CFP, which requires governments “to use transparent and objective criteria (i.e. criteria set out in advance and openly available), including those of an environmental, social and economic nature when allocating the fishing opportunities available to them”.

Therefore, each country should have released its set of criteria at the latest by the end of 2014, so anyone interested can see on what basis fishing opportunities will be allocated for 2015.

Greenpeace looked specifically at whether European governments:

- submitted a report on the balance of their fleet capacity in line with EU guidelines, and made the report publically available; and

- developed environmental, social and economic criteria to allocate fishing opportunities to their fishermen, and applied such criteria.

Greenpeace’s assessment shows variable performance on capacity reporting but significant inaction on the development and application of environmental, social and economic criteria for granting access to fishing grounds.  Despite committing to do so, most European countries have not yet changed their allocation system to grant preferential access to those fishermen who use low impact fishing methods and contribute the most to local economies, while preserving the environment.

*fishing opportunities are defined as a quantified legal entitlement to fish and includes fishing quotas (catch limitations) but also fishing effort limitations such as number of days at sea or maximum kW/day

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