The Scottish Government calls for the Common Fisheries Policy to be scrapped.

In late 2009 the European Commission released a green paper on reform of its common fisheries policy.  The paper was compiled in consultation with member states, following decades of criticism from the industry, from the scientific community, from civic groups, and from concerned and knowledgeable persons in Europe and beyond.  Finally the EU / EC admitted that the CFP had indeed failed in many respects, and agreed to its reform.  But the Scottish Government concluded that mere reform would not deal with the basic problems of the CFP and has now called instead for the common fisheries policy to be scrapped.  The call to scrap the CFP has been supported by fishermen’s associations like the SFF and FAL and others in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. An end to Brussels control and to the CFP has also been advocated by civic pressure groups like the Cod Crusaders, and political think tanks like the SDA (Scottish Democratic Alliance).

Scottish Fisheries Minister, Richard Lochhead, has stated that reform of the CFP is not enough.  It is the EU’s most damaging and unpopular policy.  The last 25 years of the CFP have been extremely painful and often ruinous for fishing communities in Scotland.  Lochhead said there is now a long-awaited opportunity to put the failures of the CFP behind us and to bring decision making back to Scotland, and so safeguard our fishing communities and fisheries. Fishing News (UK) 25 December 2009

The Scottish Government wants the CFP scrapped and urges EU member states to examine the option of returning decision making on fisheries back to each member country.  In its response to the European Commission’s green paper on reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, the Scottish Government indicated that its guiding principle would be to have the power and authority to manage fisheries taken away from Brussels and returned to local administrations.

In its response to the EC green paper (The Scottish Government’s Response to the European Commission’s Green Paper on Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy), the Government stated that the CFP has failed to :

• support biological and ecological sustainability
• match fishing capacity with fishing opportunities
• establish clear and fair levels of compliance, and
• engage with the industry to improve fisheries policies
  
  

The Scottish Government believes that a successful fisheries policy should deliver :

• sustainable fisheries management and an end to discards
• management with industry and marine stakeholders
• management that is aligned with environmental and planning objectives
• policies that recognise and are sensitive to fisheries-dependent communities, and respect their historic fishing rights.
  
  

The Scottish Government position was strongly supported by the SFF the Scottish Fisheries Federation (the largest of the country’s fishermen associations). Chief Executive Bertie Armstrong said the CFP had failed in its aim of exploiting fish stocks in a way that will provide for sustainable economic, environmental and social conditions. The one obstacle to achieving a sustainable industry has been the centralised micro-management of the EU CFP.  Professionals with first-hand knowledge of the sector should be involved in its management as the SFF was doing in cooperation with marine scientists and the Scottish Government.

Another fishery organisation, FAL, Fishermen’s Association Ltd, supported scrapping of the CFP in even stronger terms.  In FAL’s response to the EC Green Paper, secretary Roddy McColl said, “The Green Paper gives the illusion of stakeholder involvement, “empowering the regional and local dimensions”, decentralisation, involving fishermen directly in policy-making so that decisions are made closer to the people they affect.  But the Amsterdam Treaty explicitly rules out decentralisation or return of power back to Member States. The principle of Subsidiarity is a myth.

And the UK Parliament has accepted by Treaty that fisheries lie within the competence of the European Union.

Retention of the present policy on fishing is incompatible with the strategic aims of the European Union.

We want Marine Scotland to succeed.

We want maximum sustainable yield; we need to maximise our returns; we need a healthy marine environment and we need to protect our coastal communities.

But, with exclusive competence for all marine living resources residing in Brussels how can it be achieved under the CFP ? 

We highlight areas of great concern in the Green Paper

·         The main purpose of the reform is reducing overcapacity,

·         Ecological sustainability to be made the basic premise for the policy with economic and social sustainability following from that.

·         Promotion of a culture of compliance already started with the control reform

·         Revising the principle of ‘relative stability’, as it has led fisheries ministers to focus on "their" immediate share rather than on the common good. The present system of quotas is not carved in stone and solutions should be explored to make it more flexible and more tailored to the actual needs of national industries and markets.

·         Industry to be held accountable for keeping our fish stocks healthy.

There is a solution

Control of fishing in national waters up to the limits of the 200 mile exclusive economic zones or median lines must be returned to national Governments.”  

(The above texts are a summary of the Scottish Government’s paper, reports by the British ‘Fishing News’ weekly paper, and press releases by FAL, all in December 2009)

Related Document:

Scrap the CFP