Common Fisheries Policy

What is the Common Fisheries Policy?

The European Union's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was adopted in 1983, with the objective of ensuring that declining fish stocks are exploited responsibly - protecting the environment and the interests of the fishing industry and consumers.

The CFP imposes a regime of equal access for vessels from all member states in the EU's exclusive fishing zone, 200 nautical miles from its coastline. Within this zone, member states have a 12-mile zone around their own coastlines within which their own fishing vessels have exclusive rights.

Atlantic and North Sea fish stocks are sustained through a system of Total Allowable Catches (TACs), which are divided into national Quotas. However, these systems are notoriously difficult to enforce.

The CFP also includes a market organisation for the control of prices, marketing arrangements and external trade policy.


Background

The roots of the CFP lie in the original EU Treaties signed in 1957, which envisaged a common policy for fisheries.

The basic principle of the earliest common agreement on fisheries policy, reached in 1970, was that community fishermen should have equal access to member states' water sources. As a natural and mobile resource, fish were deemed to be the common property of all EU member states. In 1976, in line with international agreements, exclusive fishing grounds were extended from 12 to 200 miles around the EU's coast, and it was also decided that the Community was best placed to manage access to fisheries. Seven years of negotiations followed before the CFP was eventually agreed.

The CFP has since been reformed twice, in 1992 and 2002. In both instances, reforms aimed to preserve declining fish stocks. The late 1980s saw the fishing industry becoming a victim of its own success: high prices led the industry to over-invest, leading to overfishing. Some claimed this was exacerbated by systems of EU grants to the fishing industry, which were seen as a good way to promote regional development.

The 2002 review saw grants for the construction of new boats scrapped completely and premiums increased for decommissioning existing vessels, along with the adoption of recovery plans for specific threatened species and management plans for other stocks. The new CFP came into force on January 1 2003.

It is the responsibility of EU Member States to ensure that the rules agreed under the CFP are respected. In order to strengthen controls, it was decided in the 2002 reform to set up an EU fisheries control agency. The Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) became operational in 2007. It is intended that the Agency will strengthen the uniformity and effectiveness of enforcement by pooling EU and national means of inspection and control, and co-ordinating enforcement activities.

The European Fisheries Fund (EFF) is the financial component of the CFP. The EFF sets out different priority axes (see below) which the Member States prioritize according to their needs.
1. Measures for the adaptation of the Community fishing fleet
2. Aquaculture, inland fishing, processing and marketing of fishery and aquaculture products
3. Measures of common interest
4. Sustainable development of fisheries areas
5. Technical assistance

Each Member State sets up an operational programme (OP) for the whole programming period in which they describe and justify their choice of priority axes and set specific targets for each axis.

The EFF will run for seven years, from 2007 to 2013, with a total budget of around € 3.8 billion.

Controversies

The CFP is deeply unpopular within the fishing community, and to date it has failed to preserve fish stocks.

The reviews of 1992 and 2002 have seen increasingly stringent Quotas for UK fishing, focused primarily on the most depleted stocks. The state of cod stocks in the Irish and North Sea are particularly worrying, having been reduced almost to unsustainable levels.

Although other factors influencing the falling fish populations are not well-understood, the extinction of local cod populations by over-fishing has already been seen off parts of Canada. Debate continues about whether there should be an outright ban in certain areas.

The latest CFP review has addressed many environmentalists' concerns - its support for an overly large EU fishing fleet, harmful subsidies and a lack of focus on ecosystem management - but its effectiveness remains to be seen.

The Scottish National Party wants withdrawal from the CFP altogether and accused the Government of abandoning Scottish interests in the 2002 negotiations. In early 2004, the Conservatives also committed to a policy of withdrawal.

Enforcement of the CFP is also a source of controversy. The use of Quotas has been widely criticised, allegedly leading to illegal (unreported) landings of 'blackfish'.

'Quota Hopping' has also received considerable attention: this practice involves one member state's Quota being 'used up' by vessels sailing under flags of convenience, flagged to the Quota's member state but owned by companies from another member state.

One particularly controversial dispute concerned the operation and legality of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 part II, which resulted in 95 Spanish vessels losing their UK fishing licences. The case, better known as the Factortame dispute, resulted in protracted litigation in the British and EU courts and the EU making a groundbreaking declaration of EU legal primacy - thus revising the traditional notion of legal sovereignty in the UK.

It was also found that some vessels were using illegally small nets, thereby catching and killing juvenile fish, seriously undermining the resilience of populations.


Statistics

Largely because of inaccurate catch reports, the state of some 57% of stocks
is unknown.
Of those stocks for which the state is known 68% are at high risk of
depletion, and only some 32% of stocks are known to be fished sustainably.
In 88% of stocks, overfishing is so serious that more fish would be caught if there was less
fishing. This number is way above the situation outside the EU where the global
average is 25% of stocks being overfished.
Some 19% of stocks are in such bad state that scientists advise that there should be no fishing.

The demersal stocks in the North Sea now only produce one fifth of what was harvested from them 25 years ago. This reduction in productivity has led to increased dependence on imported raw materials for the European food industry and for the European market.
While 75% of fish products for the European market originated from domestic resources in the early 1970's, domestic products now only contributes some 40%.

Source: 'Fishing Opportunities for 2009' - European Commission - 30/05/2008


Quotes

"Against this background of stock depletion and excessively high fishing
opportunities compared to scientific advice, the Commission remains committed to
fishing opportunities that are sustainable according to scientific advice and, for
depleted stocks, will allow a high chance of stock recovery."

European Commission Policy Statement – May 2008

"The EU's new regulation on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing is the first serious attempt by any major fishing power to stamp out the activities of the pirate vessels that devastate fish stocks around the world with impunity. By making traceability throughout the market chain the norm for all fish and fish products entering the EU market, we have taken a major step towards depriving these criminals of their profits. "

Joe Borg, European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries – June 2008