Category: Article

As part of a tour of the Eastern Baltic region, the Commissioner undertook a mission to Latvia in which she met with the Minister, visited a fish processing factory and participated in a stakeholder roundtable.

According to Chris Davies (ALDE, UK), the rapporteur on the Environment committee (ENVI) for the CFP basic regulation, an overwhelming groundswell of opinion has emerged against the Commission proposals for mandatory TFCs (transferable fishing concessions).

The Fisheries Secretariat (FISH) is looking to recruit a new staff member; a Regional Policy Officer.

WWF France have produced three mini-documentaries of approximately 20 minutes each. They detail “positive fisheries” which are examples of practices which are sustainable and have a low impact on the marine environment.

Last week, the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) which answers to the European Commission on fisheries management questions, gathered in a joint venture with ICES in Rostock, Germany to discuss various management issues regarding the Baltic and the North Sea.

Lars Tysklind, a Swedish liberal MP, hosted a stakeholder event in the Swedish Parliament alongside GLOBE and WWF Sweden. To work on the CFP reform, WWF formed an alliance in 2009 with processers, retailers and chefs. The latter groups all work with fish products once they have been landed and the meeting highlighted their desire to supply sustainable produce to consumers.

Due to unforeseen circumstances the Fish Fight launch in Poland will be postponed to 23 April.

In a well-attended conference in the Danish Parliament last Friday, Mette Gjerskov, the Danish Fisheries Minster laid out her ambitions for the CFP reform. The event was organised by a group of Danish NGOs and also featured presentations from the rapporteurs Ulrika Rodust (S&D, DE) and Isabella Lövin (Greens, Sweden), along with coastal fishermen’s representative, Naseegh Jaffer, and the researcher Seth Macinko.

At yesterday’s Council meeting, a set of conclusions were adopted on the External dimension, marking the first formal step of agreement on aspects of CFP reform.

On March 13, a seminar on ‘Restoring ecological balance as a priority for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy’ was organized by the OCEAN2012 coalition, in close collaboration with the Polish Parliamentary Group on Maritime Economy. The aim of the seminar was to discuss potential changes the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy may bring upon the Polish fisheries sector, such as the implementation of the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) limit, and the inevitable economic pitfalls if fisheries management persists ‘business-as-usual’ without regard for maintaining ecological balance.