Describing the upcoming CFP reform as an “once-in-a-decade opportunity”, close to a dozen NGOs told the EU Fisheries ministers to promote a shift to “appropriately-scaled, community-based fisheries” when the new policy is taking shape.
The ministers were gathered for an informal meeting in the Spanish fishing stronghold of Vigo on May 4-5.
Welcoming the Commission’s “openness” on finding a new governance structure, the NGO statement however expressed concern that the Commission and the present Spanish EU Presidency displayed “preconceived ideas” in other areas, particularly pushing hard the system of Individually Transferable Quotas (ITQs) “in defiance of opposition from the stakeholders”.
The NGOs, which included FISH, the OCEAN2012 coalition, WWF and Greenpeace, called for a new Common Fisheries Policy that “ensures the recovery and long-term viability of fish populations, the protection of marine ecosystems and the promotion of equitable and sustainable fishing practices”.
The new policy must serve particularly those fishers who work in small-scale, sustainable coastal and artisanal fisheries, the statement said, expressing strong support for the La Coruña Declaration, signed three days earlier by more than 70 NGO and artisanal fishermen’s organisations. That document urged EU decision makers to put small-scale coastal fisheries “at the heart” of the CFP reform, set to be decided in 2012.