The Danish Fishermen’s Association has pointed out to the Danish Minister and to the European Commission that the control regulations should be reviewed together with the entire Common Fisheries Policy by 1. January 2013 to make different parts of the fisheries policy interact naturally. The Danish Minister for food, agriculture and fisheries Eva Kjer Hansen agrees with this position.
For the past year the Danish Fishermen’s Association has worked extensively with the future Control Regulation in cooperation with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture of Fisheries. But only minor details have been changed in the text because the EU Commission officials seem to be unable to deal with reality in this case.
Together with other European fishermen Danish Fishermen’s Association has addressed the President of the European Commission President directly to make him withdraw the proposal for the regulation on fisheries control.
The adoption of a new control regulation inter alia means:
Requirements for fisheries logbooks are so tight that they can not be handled in practice
Compulsory satellite tracking of small vessels and use of electronic logbook
Very high fines and a penalty scheme which could mean a three-month ban on fishing with a vessel
Landings must be notified 4 hours in advance
Transhipment is prohibited
The examples mentioned above are just some of the proposed rules, but there are many others representing many areas.
“It would be in favour of everyone if the effort were used to ensure that the current regulation is enforced in all member countries instead of implementing new impossible rules,” says Svend-Erik Andersen and continues:
“From the Danish fisheries sector we are willing to help maintain an effective control, but neither we nor our fisheries authorities can live with a law that simply can not be complied with.”
In 1998 the present regulation for technical measures was adopted. It contains conditions for the gear, minimum landing sizes, by-catch, closed areas, etc. These conditions have been negotiated several times in order to keep them up to date. It was predicted that we would have plenty of time for the negotiations about the revision of the regulation, but suddenly after the summer holiday new papers appeared for an adoption this year.
“If it were just a modernization and regionalisation of the rules to make them easier to handle, we would accept it. But significant changes have slipped in for Danish fishing, “says Svend-Erik Andersen.
If the proposed regulation about technical measures is adopted, it means inter alia that:
The conditions on bycatches in the Danish industrial fisheries will be so tight that large parts of the fisheries will close
The proposals for changing the fishing gear (trawls) are based on theory and not linked to practical fishing
The Skagerrak / Kattegat fisheries will lose a very significant part of their catches due to technical measures
The Danish Fishermen’s Association has pointed out to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries as well as at a meeting in Brussels with representatives from the EU Commission that the proposed technical measures have not thoroughly considered.
Chairman Svend-Erik Andersen adds:
“We have proposed that the EU Commission table a comprehensive framework to the Council of Ministers who may adopt it based on the current regulation. Then there will be time for a thorough planning for some regional and specific rules to be decided about next year.”
Finally Svend-Erik Andersen comments on the present situation in the Danish fishery:
“In recent years we have gone through a restructuring process resulting in fewer vessels. It has allowed increased quotas for the active vessels, and it has also brought the Danish fisheries a wide range of new vessels. All the stocks of mayor importance to Danish fisheries are increasing: cod, plaice, sole, lobster, sand eel, sprat, and we are happy about it. Unfortunately the prices are very low, like food in general right now, but hopefully the prices will increase again.
It is absolutely incredible that a well functioning fisheries sector – where the fleet has been cut to fit what we are allowed to fish – has to be mistreated by days at sea restrictions which makes it impossible to catch the quotas, technical regulations without any relations to reality and control measures that are impossible to comply with.”
