Yesterday, in a protest against the failures of the Fisheries Council, Greenpeace blocked the entrance of the EU building where the EU ministers of agriculture and fisheries were to have their two-day meeting negotiating 2008 fishing quotas in EU waters, the Baltic Sea excepted.
Greenpeace activists built a 30 meter long and 2.5 meters high wall, blocking the EU council meeting. The wall carried the message โshut down until fish stocks recoverโ, and the idea was to hinder the European ministers to set quotas above scientific recommendations. 200 activists from 14 countries were able to stage the protest for about an hour before it was stopped by the authorities.
“The Fisheries Council has been an utter disaster for fisheries,” said Greenpeace EU Marine Policy Advisor Saskia Richartz. “Unless changes are made and power is ceded to Europe’s Environment Ministers, Europe’s fisheries face a biodiversity and economic collapse.”
Environmental NGOs and other actors critical to the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), were recently given heavy support by a report from the EU court of auditors. The EU court of auditorsโ primary task is to evaluate the various EU policy areas, as well as to investigate how the EU tax payersโ money is used. The report totally damned the central part of the CFP, namely the control system. It also argues that there is not sufficient information about the state of the fish stocks, the basis for setting correct quotas, since fishermen and member states do not report all of their landings.