At the Plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels Damanaki express her comment on the green paper of CFP reform. She told that CFP is a core issue for the whole sector and she wants to congratulate the rapporteur, Mrs Patrao Neves, on the excellent way of bringing together different positions into a consistent document.
She thinks that there is a need of radical reform to turn around the structural failings of EU policy. She said that the last reform in 2002 was not sufficiently successful. Now it is urgent to tackle all the past deficits to achieve better results in environmental, social and economic regard. The public consultation has shown clearly that there is broad support for this reform, opined Damanaki.
She said that she has in mind especially the compromise amendments on sustainability, overcapacity, small-scale fisheries, horizontal decentralization, phasing out of discards, new fisheries agreements and employment in the fishing sector. She wants to highlight two specific issues. First, public funding: she believes we have to focus our subsidies to get better results by steering them towards the objectives of our policy.
Second, she shares the views on the social dimension – we want a fishery that creates attractive and safe jobs. She said that EU will prepare a summary report of last year’s consultation, which will help us prepare the proposals for the new policy. She told that with all the input EU will then in late 2010 start to develop our proposals to be adopted in the Commission in spring 2011.
