The Fisheries ministers’ 14 April Council meeting will include a first discussion of a new regime for the Western Waters, a huge part of the area the Union controls.
Established in 1995 with the objective to integrate fully Spain and Portugal into the common fisheries policy, the current fishing efforts regime has been in force since 2003.
In November last fall, the Commission presented a communication intended to assess that regime of under three aspects:
- the implementation by member states,
- the access conditions to outermost regions in the South Atlantic, and
- the effectiveness of the specific effort rule in the Biologically Sensitive Areas (“BSA”).
During the initial discussions in the working group, consisting of the member states’ Brussels-based fisheries attachés, three key points have been identified, according to the Hungarian Presidency, now to be the focus of the preliminary discussions in the Council:
- the main arguments to continue with this fishing effort regime;
- the need to update and improve the current arrangements in particular as regards the limits for demersal stocks (general or linked to certain key species) and the development of tools for limiting discards;
- the timing for this update and the link of this review with the Common fisheries policy (CFP) reform process.
One issue not mentioned in the Presidency background note, however expected by many to turn up early in the debate is the 100 nautical mile exclusive zones under the current regulation surrounding the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands.
No other EU vessels are allowed within those zones unless exempted in historical agreements, but critics contend that the areas are too large to effectively restrict the fishing effort.
The minister will also be briefed on a common declaration on the importance of aquaculture in the upcoming reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The declaration was made by the Union’s five landlocked members Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg and Slovakia.