News
May 14, 2013
Council prepares for a long evening – will Ministers get lost at sea or chart the course for fish stock recovery?
This evening, the Council is expected to conclude their discussions on the basic Regulation of the CFP reform and provide the Irish Presidency with a revised negotiating mandate for the upcoming trilogue meetings. Unless Member States compromise amongst themselves to move away from the General Approach, negotiations with the European Parliament will break down causing further delays to the already much drawn out CFP reform.
May 13, 2013
Council in make-or-break talks to conclude the CFP reform
On 13 and 14 May, the crucial Council meeting to decide on their final negotiating position on the basic Regulation takes place. In order to bridge the divide between the European institutions, rapporteur from the Parliament, Ulrike Rodust (S&D, DE), wrote to Ministers last week informing them she was willing to make sacrifices “in order to achieve a compromise”.
May 7, 2013
All aboard for sustainable fishing
Invite your Minister to get on board the good ship sustainable fishing. This website encourages EU citizens to call on their representatives to pass laws which let fish stocks recover, supports sustainable fishing and ends harmful subsidies.
April 26, 2013
CFP reform timeline gets squeezed as trilogue makes slow progress
As the much-delayed reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy draws toward its conclusion, a last-minute deal between the European Parliament and Council may have to be brokered due to the lack of progress thus far on key issues.
April 17, 2013
First EU discard ban approved by European Parliament
The proposed discard ban in the Skagerrak, a body of water between the North and Baltic seas, will lead to vessels being obliged to land all fish caught and count these against quotas. These measures will apply to 35 species , will be controlled by a mandatory automated CCTV system, and will apply to vessels of any national flag operating in these waters. The ban will the phased in from 2014-2016.
April 9, 2013
Join the Race for the Baltic!
FISH, Coalition Clean Baltic, Oceana and other stakeholders in the region have come together in a call for action to improve practices and protection in the Baltic Sea. The targets are there; now we have to meet them!
April 5, 2013
Chinese fleet accused of gross misreporting
In a new article academics have sought to re-evaluate the catches of the Chinese distant-water fleet during 2000-2011. They claim that the official figures provided to the FAO represent a mere 9% of their actual catch, and the revised estimate of 4.6 million tonnes per year of fish caught should instead be valued at close to €9 billion per year.
March 25, 2013
EU decision on fish subsidies may pose risk to global negotiations
Today, some Members of the European Parliament and Member States are in favour of bringing back subsidies for construction of new vessels and modernisation measures as part of the new EU fund for fisheries and maritime affairs. This would be contradictory to the UN Rio+20 agreement on subsidies and could harm global negotiations in the WTO.
March 25, 2013
ENVI Committee votes in favour but PECH Committee delays vote
On March 21, 2013 the ENVI Committee voted in favour (58 to 1) of a deep sea trawling ban at depths below 200 m. Unfortunately, the PECH Committee delayed their discussions because of an intervention by the industry as little as 12 hours before they were to meet. This delay tactic enables the deep-sea fishing industry’s desire to weaken or destroy the regulation.
March 22, 2013
FISH hosts third Capacity Building Workshop for Polish NGOs
This week FISH hosted the third workshop on Capacity Building for Polish NGOs. This workshop focused on the Integration of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) with wider marine issues: The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP).