Fisheries minister welcomes new proposals on discards
European Commission due to unveil new plans today
RADICAL plans for reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy are due to be unveiled by the European Commission today (Wednesday).
Measures to cut overfishing, reduce the number of vessels, and ban fish discards at sea are set to be put forward by Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki.
The proposals were welcomed by Newbury MP and Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon.
In January Mr Benyon said: “The fisheries system is managed, top down, in a very centralised way by the EU and will be reformed in 2012. It will be decentralised if we get our way.”
He described the practise of “discards,” where perfectly healthy fish are thrown back into the sea, dead, as “indefensible.”
Under the current system, EU boats in the North Sea have to throw away up to half of what they catch to stay within their quotas.
Mr Benyon said today's announcement was in reponse to pressure from Britain and other countries and added: “I believe the announcement will have welcome proposals on discards.”
Liberal Democrat Euro MP for the south east, Catherine Bearder, said: "Put plain and simply, Europe's fish stocks are at risk of total collapse. Fish were once abundant in our waters but unsustainable levels of fishing have done huge damage to this natural resource. We now rely on imports for nearly 70 per cent of the fish we eat."
She added: "After all our hard work and lobbying, it's great to see the Commissioner has listened to what we've said. But we still need to do more. We must take steps to restore stocks and put more fish back in the sea. That's the way to give a better future for fish and a future for fishermen."
The proposals are also expected to include an end to micro-management of fisheries from Brussels, with day to day decision-making devolved to regional fisheries bodies across Europe; replacement of the annual contest between fisheries ministers over catch quotas with long term management plans based on best scientific evidence; encouragement for member states to permit the transfer or exchange of fishing rights between owners of large vessels and fishing agreements with developing nations to be put on a sustainable basis by linking them to requirements for scientific assessments and good governance.
