News / CFP reform closer
SCOTTISH fishing leaders have welcomed Wednesday’s vote by the European Parliament to back reforms to the much reviled Common Fisheries Policy.
The reforms are designed to protect endangered stocks, bring an end to discards and introduce more regional management and long term planning.
Scottish fishing secretary Richard Lochhead said that final agreement on the reforms would not happen until the middle of the year.
“In particular, we welcome the support for the decentralisation of fisheries management,” Lochhead said.
“Rather than a centralised ‘one size fits all’ policy, we now have a real opportunity to control our fisheries much more effectively on a regional basis where fishermen, government, scientists and other relevant stakeholders can develop effective management regimes.
“As far as discards are concerned, no one hates discarding more than our fishermen, but there is concern about how a discards ban would work in practice, given the complex mixed fisheries that our fishing fleet works in.
“There is still, therefore, much to discuss on the operational details of how such a plan would actually work.”
Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong, in Shetland on Wednesday, welcomed the vote but said there was still much to be achieved.
“Three years down the line we are no closer to having a model of regional management in place that will actually work,” he said.
He added “the devil would be in the detail” over the methods proposed for bringing an end to discards, which were largely the result of poor regulation.
MEP Struan Stevenson said the vote was a “seminal and long overdue landmark on the road to reform of the CFP”.
Wildlife charity WWF-UK described it as “a ground breaking result for the future of fisheries across Europe”.
Their fisheries programme manager Henry McLachlan said: “This vote reflects the views of the hundreds of thousands of members of the public, industry and fishermen themselves who campaigned to ensure the long term stability of fish stocks.”
Opposition to the reforms comes from a fishing alliance known as Europeche, which regards them as too extreme.
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