The meeting has four agendas which were discussed extensively. The role of Producer Organisations (POs) is an important part and there was a strong feeling from fish producer representatives that they would like financial incentives to be provided for PO mergers so that larger national and transnational organisations were created.
Currently 6 intervention mechanisms exist to guarantee fish producers a minimum amount of money for their product and prevent fish producers being undercut in an open market. There was demand to simplify this system and only one intervention was in place, with the suggestion that there should be a bottom to the market but no other intervention mechanisms being made powerfully by the processors association AIPCE.
Now the most discussed topic was Member State non-compliance with the monitoring of marketing standards. For this the EAPO representative offering a study showing that 30-40 percent of fish sold in the EU is mislabelled. It was widely acknowledged that across the EU, the common marketing standards are not being applied throughout and this needs to be addressed.
The current system whereby EU producers have to abide by many more rules and regulations than third countries, who can thereby offer lower prices, was roundly criticised for being unfair.
