The EU Parliament Fisheries Committee wishes to see a revision of the much-debated recreational fisheries article of the Commission’s proposed Control Regulation.
In a consultative report, adopted on March 31, the EP committee included amendments rewriting the recreational fishing article to say that such fishing from a vessel in community marine waters, on a stock subject to a multiannual recovery plan, “may be evaluated” by member states, an opening for future regulations. But fishing with rod and reel from shore shall not be included, they added.
“Is it fair to commercial fishermen to continue to allow recreational fishermen to fish with no controls whatsoever?”, asked the committee rapporteur Raül Romeva i Rueda, a Spanish Green, claiming that “it would be discriminatory to subject commercial fisheries to strict controls and limits while largely exempting non-commercial fisheries”.
“If those involved in fisheries, from the people on the boats to those who sell the fish to consumers, do not respect the rules, the [common fisheries] policy is doomed to fail”, he added.
The committee also wanted to remove from the proposal the Commission’s authority to close fisheries or reduce quotas in order to meet Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) objectives, and replace that with rules on the transfer of unused quotas.