Last week the European Commission announced several changes to the Advisory Councils. Changes necessary to move towards regionalised fisheries management giving the Advisory Councils a stronger voice and a more balanced representation within fishery policy.
The changes to the ACs announced by the European Commission include a review of membership to ensure a more balanced representation of stakeholders, where more room is given to the other-interest groups such as environmental organisations, consumer organisations, water users, sports fishermen. The inclusion of local stakeholders and small-scale fisheries representative has been highlighted and an extra five seats may be granted within an AC to ensure appropriate representation of small-scale fleets. The Commission further encourages that the financial obstacles for representatives from small-scale fleet organisation to take part in AC meetings are to be removed i.e by offering additional compensation.
The changes set out by the European Commission also includes clarification of the role of ACs, where ACs are to state their objectives, operating principle and rules of procedure, something which FISH and other environmental NGOs within the BSAC has requested for some time.
About the Advisory Councils
The creation of Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) was one of the pillars of the 2002 reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The decision to set up regional councils was taken following pressure from various stakeholders who found it difficult to exert any influence on the decisions that shape the way the fisheries sector is managed.
With the new CFP, which came into force on 1 January 2014, regionalisation and more extensive stakeholder consultation are to become central planks in fisheries management and RACs are to be transformed to Advisory Councils (ACs) – all steps towards putting an end to the micro-management of European fisheries from Brussels.
Under the new CFP, the ACs are to give advice to the Commission and to Member States on fisheries management within their region or sea basin. EU Member States have to consult the relevant Advisory Council on joint regional recommendations before submitting them to the European Commission. Once these conditions are met, the Commission can adopt a Commission Act to transform the joint recommendations into EU law applicable to all operators.