The Common Fisheries Policy reform: still waiting for decisions

 During the last few years, much has been debated about European fisheries: the precariousness of the stocks, the management regime, the discards, the excessive fishing capacity, the importance of the fish imports… but, whatever their point of view, all parties agree on one point: European fisheries are in a critical situation. Most stocks are currently either overexploited or exploited at the maximum level, mainly as a consequence of the present allocation system for fishing opportunities: the annual catch quotas based on historical fishing rights.

In December 2012, a brand new version of the Common Fisheries Policy was due to be approved. Already in 2013, the political game of power between the Council and the Parliament means that there is no new policy approved yet. Negotiations have been ongoing since July 2011, and the subsequent strong debate has revolved around two main points: the discard ban and the transition from the annual catch quota system to new long-term management plans, in the political framework of the co-decision system. Important novelties are about to be introduced in European fisheries management.

In July 2011, the European Commission published a highly controversial new text for the already criticized Common Fisheries Policy. The previous text (Council Regulation No 2371/2002) was due to expire the 31st December 2012, and since July 2011 the European Commission and Parliament, as well as all involved stakeholders, have been engaged in discussions and negotiations on its replacement. Regardless to say, the new text has not been approved yet.

The reform aims to be ambitious, but it is inevitably seen as too radical from the point of view of the fishing industry and not progressive enough from the NGO and science perspective. The most important and controversial innovations in the reform will be the discard ban and the transition from the prevailing annual catch-quota system for allocation of fishing opportunities to long-term management plans for all of the stocks, achieving Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY, the maximum amount of fish that can be caught within safe biological levels) by 2025.

The problem:

The situation is critical for the European fishing industries. 75% of the stocks are either over-exploited or are being exploited at the maximum possible rate. Between 1995 and 2005, the size of the catches has decreased by 30% (European Commission, 2008) and employment in the sector has fallen 23% (EC, 2010-1), while the percentage of imported fish products has risen to 60% of the total (EC, 2008).

And why is there such a big problem? The causes are diverse:

The annual catch-quota system, which assigns the fishing opportunities (how much a country can fish in a given stock) for a given species for a given year the year before with fisheries data already a year old. C’est à dire,t here is a 2 year gap between data and implementation (the quotas for 2013 have been calculated upon catch data from 2011). As the catch quotas are negotiated in the European Council (a political body), they are always set above the limits specified by scientific advisory bodies, and overfishing is the rule.

The excessive fishing capacity: about 85,000 fishing vessels (EC, 2010-2) remain active in the European Union, being the biggest fleets Spain, Denmark and Portugal (also the biggest consumers of fisheries products). Despite the constant 2-3% annual reduction rate of the fleet size they retain the same fishing capacity (how much the boats are capable to catch) due to technological improvements (EC, 2008). We fish equally as much with (slightly) less boats.

The discards: the fishing opportunities that are set in the Council for each fish species are divided among the countries according to historical fishing rights (how the pie has been historically shared among the member states), and then each country allocates its vessels a fixed quota. This means that, often, each boat has a quota for a single or a few fish species. However, most fish stocks are mixed: many species appear together and are fished at the same time. All the species, even those with commercial value, for which the boat has no quota, are thrown back into the sea, most of the times dead. Moreover, the ever shrinking quotas and deteriorating state of the stocks means that the fishermen only keep aboard the biggest individuals, throwing the rest back into the sea and repeating the process until they fill the quota with sufficiently large fish. As regards the quota calculations, all discarded specimens are unaccounted externalities that are not taken into consideration. The problem is huge: in certain fisheries, discards can account for as much as 90% off all the things that fall in the nets!

Deficit: the excessive size of the fleet, the increasing costs of fuel and the reduction in the quotas means that many boats compete for few fish, and spend fewer days in the sea than they used to, having to spend much more fuel for fishing less. This means the fisheries sector cannot sustain itself on the profits of its catches without resorting to an enormous increase in prices that could potentially crush demand, which makes it heavily dependent on subsidies.

The new Policy

The new policy is going to include the some new instruments (European Council, 2012) for fisheries management:

The discard ban, an obligation to land all catches. Whatever falls in the nets shall be landed. Furthermore, all landed catches shall be recorded, monitored and will count against the quotas (for all countries and vessels). This may involve the simultaneous closure of several mixed fisheries due to the exhaustion of the quota of the first species of a mixed stock. We can expect this to reduce even more the catches.

Transition to multi-year management plans, either for single species or multi-species in the case of mixed stocks (where different species swim and are captured together, with little or no possibility to improve selectivity) that will include catch goals and time frames heading towards recovery to the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).

Compulsory eco-labelling in fisheries products, including stock of origin, landing date and capture methods.

A new European Fisheries Fund, providing subsidies for the fleet.

From the point of the view of the European Institutions, the way to go will be to reduce the fishing opportunities in the short to medium run, with the final objective of maximizing catches once the stocks have recovered. This could involve an increase of at least a 40% in the catches respect of current levels (CFP Reform Watch, 2012). Also, there is a very relevant objective of reducing the size and fishing capacity of the fleet, one of the main contributors to the current overexploitation of stocks (EC, 2008). But, on the meanwhile, the quotas and fishing opportunities will be severely reduced, and hence the profitability of the fleet.

So what?

 The implementation of these measures is going to involve a big challenge. In the first instance, politically, for the need to reduce the catches in the short run for their increase in the long term. This will encounter important opposition and contestation by the main fishing nations as regards the allowed quotas and the contents of the long-term management plans, especially those with the biggest fleets (Spain, Portugal and France). The multi-year management plans are already demonstrating their political connotations in the still undecided dispute between the Council and the Parliament over their elaboration, content and decision procedures. Both the Council and the Parliament have set busy agendas for the second half of January with the objective of finally agreeing on the final text and approving this polemic policy.

Secondly, logistically, the discard ban will be an enormous implementation defy: enforcement, monitoring, accounting for the catches (including those of small-sized individuals, not allowed for human consumption) and the improvement of the market mechanisms for the commercialization of all the specimens caught are just the most relevant challenges ahead.

But the hopes are high. The reform can be qualified as very ambitious. The political will for a change is present, even though maybe with not determination enough, as seen when the Council decided to postpone still 5 years the complete phase out of the subsidies for fleet modernization (Council of the EU, 2012). The reform includes numerous conservation measures and aims definitely towards the recovery of the stocks and their sustainable management, taking the adequate steps in that direction (such as the discard ban and the long-term management plans). However, only the implementation overcoming of the Council-Parliament rivalry will finally show whether these are the changes the European stocks need so desperately.

Let’s see what happens by the end of the month.

Sergio RejadoAlbaina

MESPOM, Spain