CFP reform seems to be adrift after the lead Commission official on the reform process, Spaniard Cesar Deben, was abruptly removed from post by new fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki. At the same time, the last consultative meeting held by the Commission, before it goes into internal deliberations, has revealed contrasting approaches to how technical conservation should be applied in the new CFP.
The Commission’s failure last year, to push through a half-digested replacement to the complex and incomprehensible present technical conservation regulation, to beat the Lisbon Treaty and co-decision-making with the European Parliament, has meant that technical measures will now be dealt with as part of the reform.
