The Czech EU Presidency has delegated many of the fisheries issues to Sweden and France, the Union’s next and former Presidency, respectively, a Swedish daily reports.
Sweden will be responsible for matters related to waters north of the English Channel and France for the areas south of the Channel, Dagens Nyheter reported, quoting the Swedish Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Eskil Erlandsson as saying that the Czechs apparently “don’t have so much experience of issues relating to the Seas.”
Although the Presidency formally still rests on the Czechs, the arrangement offers Sweden good opportunities for an early start in pushing some issues the country intends to highlight during its Presidency that starts on July 1. “Sustainable fisheries and animal welfare will be my department’s top priorities”, Mr. Erlandsson noted.
He said that experience has shown that demanding stops to fishing of threatened fish stocks is not a realistic path to follow, something Sweden has earlier proposed, and that his country now rather will work to stand out as a good example in developing and using selective tools.
Mr. Erlandsson also pointed to the recent EU agreement with Norway, regarded as a pioneer in that field, where tool development and effort management are important parts.
He stressed the importance of acting realistically in order to achieve concrete results, and said that “since we’re now on the playing field, we can wield strong influence in deciding on fishing days restrictions and more efficient control measures”. He added, as an example of the latter, that Polish illegal fishing has decreased lately.