At its General Assembly held this week, Europêche confirmed the mandate of its President, Javier Garat, for another two years. This is alongside his role as Secretary General of Spanish Fishing Confederation CEPESCA.
The four vice-presidents elected for the same period are Barrie Deas (National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations – NFFO), Marc Ghiglia (Union des Armateurs á la Pêche de France – UAPF), Gerard Van Balsfoort (Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association – PFA) and Paul Piscopo (Koperattivi Malta). Niels Wichmann (Danish Fishermen’s Association) was re-elected as Treasurer and Daniel Voces de Onaíndi was appointed acting Managing Director of the Association.
During the debates, Europêche underlined the following major objectives and priorities:
• Enabling fluent communication between the European institutions and the fishing sector with the aim to ensure sustainable fisheries in EU and international waters.
• Taking the lead on the recovery of the Mediterranean together with the scientific community, governments and civil society groups.
• Using the expertise of our fishing professionals to positively contribute to current major fisheries political debates such as International Ocean’s Governance, Technical Measures, North Sea Multiannual Plan and the sustainable management of external fishing fleets.
• Contributing to overcoming the difficulties of the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy regarding important pieces of legislation such as the landing obligation.
• Effectively integrating the three pillars of sustainability; environmental, social and economic into EU policy making, particularly on TACs and quotas for the coming years.
• Enhancing the key role played by Europêche within the Committee on social dialogue in the sea fishing sector, being the recent transposition of the Social Partners’ Agreement on the ILO Work in Fishing Convention 2007 (C188) into an EU Directive proof of its effectiveness and success.
