The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation has welcomed the strong indications given at yesterday’s Fisheries Council in Brussels that the EC is committed to meaningful reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
After the meeting, the Council said it would ‘take courageous steps to have a real and meaningful reform of the CFP’, and also indicated that decentralisation of the Policy was one of the key issues for discussion.
The consultation period on the Green Paper on CFP Reform lasts until the end of 2009, with the EU having until 2012 to draw up a new Common Fisheries Policy.
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the SFF, said: “The EC has made it quite clear that there will be no controls on their thinking and are considering radical solutions. This is to be welcomed – as long as the final measures agreed are workable.
“The current system is patently not working and there seems to be agreement at the Fisheries Council that it is ready to let go and decentralise fisheries policy. The present policy of relying on the main management tools of restricted catching and restricted time at sea is not working.
“There needs to be a more intelligent way of managing fisheries and this includes the decentralisation of policy where regional management can produce regional solutions. Scottish fishermen are already pioneering a range of conservation initiatives and we hope that yesterday’s meeting of the Council signals the beginning of a real move towards a new and radical approach to fisheries management.”
