As per the press release the conference was held in A Coruna, in Spain, which marked the end of the consultative phase that began with the publication of the Green Paper on CFP reform. The Commissions are on move to close down its external consultations which are expected to take around six months, after which proposals will be presented to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.
The debate in the conference made it clear that regionalisation will play a major role in the reform but it is far from clear what this will mean in practice. The Commission appears to recognise that the one-size-fits-all approach lies at the heart of many of the current CFP’s failings. It is clear that the EU Treaties severely limit the extent to which legal decision making jurisdiction can be transferred to regional bodies, even if these are comprised of all the member states with fisheries in a given sea basin.
The main job is to make a way to decentralise policy formulation whilst leaving formal decision making structures intact. Experts believe that the core of a successful decentralised regional body would lie with fisheries managers, fishermen and fisheries scientists from the relevant member states working together on long term management plans, technical measures etc.
On a more positive note, the NFFO’s concrete ideas for giving the fishing industry responsibility through approved and audited sustainable fishing plans has been seen positively by the Commission and are likely to feature in the final proposals, at least as far as anyone outside the Commission’s inner circles can judge. Regional advisory councils are seen as one of the most positive developments arising from the 2002 reforms but there are also fears that the RACs could be undermined in a badly designed regional set up.
