In an unusual move, the Swedish WWF Secretary-General, the president of the Swedish Fishermen’s Federation and the country’s Minister of Fisheries have published a joint letter calling for “regionalisation” of EU decision-making.
Referring to Sweden’s four-day old role as EU President, Lasse Gustavson of the WWF, Henrik Svenberg of the SFR, and Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Eskil Erlandsson wrote that the nation now had a “unique chance to change the fisheries policy”.
With the differences in conditions between the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean as an example, they argued for decisions more clearly based on the knowledge of both NGOs and the industry in the particular regions.
“The future shape of the EU fisheries policy must be more based on consumers’ demands”, they said, adding that “the industry must be given more extensive responsibility, too, and take it, as well”.
Referring to the possibly recovering cod stocks in the Baltic, where recovery plans have been in place for two years, they wrote that more plans of that kind are needed. They described as “obvious” that scientific advice should be followed.
Among other measures, future fisheries policy should include instruments to reduce fleet capacity and discards. As for agreements with nations outside the Union, those agreements should make sure that only sustainable stocks are fished, and only those parts of stocks that the nations themselves can not utilise.
They wrote that few nations stand a better chance to achieve change than Sweden, since “few countries can draw together politicians, the industry and the environmental interest the way we have managed to. The way we look at things in the same way regarding the long-term goals of the fisheries policy, and what measures are necessary to reach those goals, is unique”.
They added that the Swedish Presidency means a great challenge in “making our colleagues share our view, so that changes can really be made”.