“Most delegations” were said to contend that the Commission was going too far with some proposed TAC cuts for 2011, and the retiring Spanish Presidency chair Elena Espinosa underlined that they were only “at the very beginning” as the EU June Council meeting opened formal discussions of the upcoming CFP reform.
At a press conference after the meeting, Commissioner Maria Damanaki took the opportunity to once more reiterate the strong need for enhanced sustainability while working out the next Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
“I have two figures to illustrate this”, Ms. Damanaki said:
“By 2022, only 8 of our 136 species will be healthy. By the same year, one third of our stocks will be threatened by collapse. This is if we go on with the same policy. We cannot go on with business as usual”.
She added that her second message regarding the CFP reform, to be decided in 2012, was that “we have to go more local”.
“We will have to end micromanagement from Brussels. We will have to find solutions on a regional basis”, she proclaimed.
The first point on the agenda for the fisheries part of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting was a discussion on the Commission’s recent policy paper on the fishing opportunities for 2011.
Spain’s Fisheries Minister Elena Espinosa, who chaired her last meeting before Belgium takes over the EU Presidency on 1 July, summed up the Commission Communication in seven “pillars”, the first of which she mentioned establishing sustainable catch levels and “stable conditions for fishing agents, avoiding unnecessary change”.
As for the CFP reform, Ms. Espinosa also underlined that it has to take both sustainability and “socioeconomic and environmental aspects” into account.
“Any future CFP must guarantee the survival of the sector”, she added.
A press release published later by the Council said that “most of the delegations” regretted “that the Commission proposes to reduce quotas for certain categories of fish although no scientific elements are provided to confirm this need”.
It added that “some delegations” had pointed out that the implementation of new measures should be “flexible and progressive”.
As for Commissioner Damanaki’s presentation regarding the CFP reform, the press release pointed out that “three delegations” had followed up by proposing a common declaration highlighting “in particular the management by national quotas and their opposition to the introduction of individual tradable rights (ITRs) at EU level”.
The Commission had earlier put out a feeler about a “pan-EU” ITR system, an idea that was roundly dismissed by most parties at a stakeholders’ conference in La Coruña, Spain, in May.
Commissioner Damanaki finally thanked the Spanish minister for “fruitful cooperation” during the past half-year, Ms. Damanaki’s first on the post, and said she would now prepare a proposal on a new CFP for “the first semester next year”.
There were few questions from the media after the prepared statements opening the press conference, and asked by a French reporter on a suggestion from France, Germany and Poland that TACs should be kept as “the main system”, she non-committingly replied that she “fully respected” that approach, but that the Commission’s Green Paper had drawn many responses, which she would all take into consideration, “and decide”.