In an article ahead of Friday’s EU Fisheries Council meeting, the Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers calls the current Union fisheries regime a “dismal failure”.
Halldor Asgrimsson, a former Prime Minister of Iceland, added that Nordic management systems in that field could serve as a “source of inspiration” for the upcoming reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The organisation he currently heads is the official body for inter-governmental co-operation in the Nordic Region. Norway and Iceland, two nations with extensive fisheries industries, are not EU members, but Norway has wide-ranging annual agreements in the field with the Union, and Iceland and the EU took the first steps in membership proceedings earlier this year.
In the letter published in the EUobserver, Asgrimsson writes that the Nordic nations share the EU Commission’s vision of a future where the fishing industry is economically viable and “blatant overfishing is a thing of the past”, but remarks that said vision is “far removed from the current reality in Europe”.
The Nordic Council of Ministers will act on the invitation in the Commission Green Paper to submit comments, and will also publish a study of Nordic solutions that will hopefully inspire the Union, he said, pointing out that these management systems vary, but offer many effective solutions, “as shown by the countries’ top rankings in international comparative studies”.
He specifies three particular areas where the EU could benefit from Nordic experience:
• The reduction of discards. Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands have already banned discards.
• Rights-based management. Iceland was one of the first countries to introduce individual transferable quotas (ITQ) for fishermen, while Norway was the first country in the world to introduce trawling licences.
• Co-management – fishermen playing a role in the decision-making process.
The ultimate goal, Asgrimsson concludes, should be an EU fisheries sector that “does not receive direct financial aid”.
“Reform of the CFP should also lead to more widespread regionalisation – decisions should not be taken centrally in Brussels, but at levels where awareness of regional conditions is greater”.
The Nordic Council of Ministers includes Sweden’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Eskil Erlandsson, who will chair Friday’s EU Council meeting in Brussels.