News

May 3, 2012

April Council – TFC “privatisation” plans rejected

Discussions at the April Council of Ministers meeting seemingly dealt a final blow to the Commission’s proposal for mandatory transferable fishing concessions (TFCs) to be used by Member States to allocate quotas and regulate access to fish resources. At their launch, the proposals were denounced as “a compulsory near-privatisation of marine resources” by a coalition of environmental organisations.


May 2, 2012

Damanaki builds Eastern bridges

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.


April 27, 2012

Mandatory TFCs: off the CFP reform agenda

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).


April 18, 2012

FISH has a vacancy

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


April 12, 2012

“Positive fishing” – mini documentaries

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.


April 12, 2012

Multispecies management for the Baltic – slow progress

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.


March 30, 2012

Swedes call for more fish in the 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.


March 29, 2012

Fish Fight launch in Poland: date change

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


March 28, 2012

Danish Minister talks up a sustainable CFP at NGO conference

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.


March 20, 2012

External dimension first step forward on reform

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.