The President of France’s National Fisheries Committee, Olivier Le Nezet, has made a public appeal to French President Emmanuel Macron over the way fishing is being treated.
‘I have never seen such a flood of attacks. These are all attacks on our profession. These call into question the basis of our profession, which is to feed the people of France and Europe,’ Olivier Le Nezet writes in his open letter to the President of France.
‘Everyone talks about food sovereignty, but when it comes to reality, nobody is interested. The European Union remains open to imports from third countries. However, the Covid crisis and the war in Ukraine have demonstrated the importance of European production.’
He commented that Europe now appears to be under a new government by NGO, with pressure applied to every sector of the fishing industry at regional and national level.
‘These pressure groups use every media trick there is. These groups are systematically, and at the limit of legality, preomoting a radical ecological agenda. With no balance between between human activities and the environment, the environment is everything. It is very clear, they want to end our profession.’
Olivier Le Nezet states that for the last five years fishermen have been taking the initiative in scientific and technical programmes to devise ways of ensuring that fishing and dolphins can co-exist.
‘An Action Plan was imposed on us by the State under the threat of litigation from the European Commission. We will examine the possibility of an appeal. The Action Plan must be revised and I do not plan to participate with the NGOs in the dedicated working group,’ he said, and commented further that the industry’s frustration has reached new levels with the European Commission’s proposals to severely curtail active demersal fishing gears.
Prohibiting fishing with bottom gear in MPAs is clearly going to be the end for us. And the Commission, in its bureaucratic ivory tower, explains that it will help us convert our ships to recreational fishing, tourism and the collection of waste at sea! Are they laughing at us? Above all, it is the lack of consideration for our profession, which sustains a whole sector, ports, a local economy, which disgusts me. It seems that the State no longer sees a future for our sector,’ Olivier Le Nezet writes.
‘We need a break in this avalanche of attacks. We hope, Mr President, to be able to discuss this essential subject with you as soon as possible.’
