The policy department for structural and cohesion policies of the European Parliament presented a study for the PECH committee on ‘EU fisheries, its latest developments and the upcoming challenges’
On Tuesday 24 September, the policy department for structural and cohesion policies of the European Parliament presented a study on EU fisheries. This research was outsourced to three different organizations (Université de Brest, DTU-AQUA and AZTI), who evaluated the implementation of the latest developments in three areas of the CFP: fisheries management, Common Market Organisation, and the external dimension.
Martin Aranda, from AZTI, an organization with expertise in ocean and food value chains, informed that the external dimension of the CFP is quite substantial, as it constitutes 25% of EU catches. The European Distant Water fleet comprises nowadays more than 250 vessels. However, the EU is, in his opinion, first and foremost important in terms of institutional capacity and has potential to become a leader worldwide in terms of good governance. He noted that the future challenges of the external dimension are usually “old problems,” some of which would benefit from the EU continuing to integrate environmental and socio-economic aspects in the fisheries managements and to promote better working conditions for fishermen.
Regarding the latest developments in the external dimension of the CFP, Mr Aranda noted that in RFMOs, one of the main constraints relates to the legitimate claims of developing states to develop their fisheries. He also highlighted that there is increasing concern about social sustainability, e.g., working conditions, health and safety for which the EU is already a champion. However, a challenge for RFMOs is therefore to develop allocation criteria to ensure the fair distribution of fishing opportunities amongst parties in RFMOs. Allocation should not be based solely on historical catches, but it should also include socioeconomic factors, compliance, and ecological impacts. This is a position shared by CFFA and CAOPA, who have been advocating in tuna RFMOs like the IOTC to establish allocation of access systems that prioritise those fishers who fish most sustainably and bring the most social and economic benefits to coastal developing countries members of these RFMOs.
One of Aranda’s case studies for the external dimension were the SFPAs with Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. Mr Aranda underlined the lack of scientific and technical means these countries have to evaluate the state of their own fish stocks, and determine a surplus of resources that can be caught by foreign fleets. Another challenge is transparency, though he only mentioned it in the case of non-EU fleet’s activities. CFFA welcomes this focus on the need for transparency, and demands that, in all SFPAs, like it is the case with the EU-Mauritania SFPA, an article is included to publish information about the overall fishing effort in fisheries where the EU is present. But we also insist on the need to have more transparency about how the public funds allocated for sectoral support are spent.