The director of Italian fishing industry body Federpesca has told EU Commissioner Costas Kadis that while the industry has a serious need for modernisation and innovation, EU legislation is preventing this from taking place.
‘We need you to intervene on this,’ said Federpesca director Francesca Biondo, speaking during the Commissioner’s visit to Italy, one of a serious of calls in European fishing nations, and making it clear that given the Commissioner’s background as a biologist, the industry appreciates his opinion that focused assessments and case-by-case analyses, ensuring that decisions are guided by up-to-date scientific evidence, are the correct approach to the evaluation of fishing practices.
‘This is fundamental, especially in a context such as the Mediterranean,’ Francesca Biondo said.
‘We absolutely do not want to avoid recognising that fishing has clear impacts, but we have always argued for the need for this to be evaluated in relation to other food production practices and, in particular, other marine sectors, which have been given too little attention in recent years,’ she said, citing the crisis situations facing fisheries in southern Sicily and pelagic fisheries in the Adriatic as cases in point, and stating that fishermen are those with a strong interest in environmental sustainability.
‘It is enough to follow the political guidelines of President Von der Leyen who declared “we will demonstrate that Europe will protect its food sovereignty and those who supply us with food,”’ Francesca Biondo said, describing this as a fundamental challenge.
‘Especially at a time like the one we are experiencing globally, in which Europe is experiencing an urgent need for strategic autonomy. And fishing operators are the first to want to achieve this.’
