Fish fleets could be able to trade their catch quotas under EU plans to reform the bloc’s fishing industry.
The European Commission has put forward a set of plans to reform how the EU’s fish stocks are managed.
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The need for changes to the Common Fisheries Policy, introduced in 1983, was “urgent”, the Commission said.
Three out of four fish species are over-fished, which was “threatening the entire marine eco-system”, the Commission said. “Current EU measures have reduced the danger for some fish stocks but commercial trawlers are still catching fish faster than they can reproduce.”
Brussels claimed “sustainability” was “at the heart of the reform”. It proposes that, by 2015, “stocks must be exploited at sustainable levels that produce the maximum sustainable yield”.
The Commission also plans to ban discarding – when fish fleets throw part of their catch back into the sea to avoid exceeding EU quotas.
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By GlobalDataA notable part of the reform package was a plan to introduce market-based measures. The Commission wants to, for example, allow individual quotas to be tradable among fishermen. It believes such measures, rather than subsidies, would reduce the number of fleets in the EU.
“Fleet overcapacity remains one of the main obstacles to achieving sustainable fisheries,” the Commission said. “The new scheme, in which fleets would be reduced on an industry-induced basis via transferable fishing concessions, will not require public funding and it removes drivers for overcapacity. Operators will have an incentive to increase their concessions while others may decide to leave the industry.”
Brussels, meanwhile, said it also proposed to “enhance” the publication of information for consumers and said “where needed” it could faciliate voluntary labelling on production techniques and environmental claims.
