Stephenson on Reforming the EU Common Fisheries Policy

A Report for BBC World Service "Calling the Falklands" by Jenny Hargreaves (JH) 11 October 2002

This autumn the European Union has to put its mind urgently to reforming the Common Fisheries Policy. And, on Wednesday, the EU Farming and Fisheries Commissioner, Franz Fishler, set the ball rolling by announcing an ambitious action plan for the Mediterranean. This would introduce an emergency scrapping programme to tackle excess fleet capacity and the phasing out of public subsidies for new vessels. These proposals are likely to provoke a heated debate and, no doubt, strong objections from the Mediterranean countries which are home to nearly half of Europe’s fishing fleet in boat numbers, and, where fisheries provide more than 100,000 jobs. But paradoxically, meanwhile, the EU is proposing to introduce quotas on total allowable catches on deep-sea species. Though, it’s precisely these measures that have contributed to the decline of European fish stocks. The conservative MEP, Struan Stephenson, (SS) who is Chairman of the Fisheries Committee, tried to head this proposal off in the European Parliament by suggesting that a better approach would be to limit the number of days fishing allowed. But, as he told me, he wasn’t able to muster enough votes.

SS: That’s right because the French are the main fishing fleet in these waters, fishing for the deep sea stocks and also the Spanish, who were not keen at all to see effort limitation imposed because that would have reduced the amount of time they could fish and that would have reduced their profits and they lobbied very successfully. And the Southern Members, as it often happens in the European Parliament, ganged up together and defeated the Northern Members and now we are going to have this mix-match of tax, quotas and, in due course, effort limitation as well. All put together, it really is a recipe for disaster. And, I would predict that within a few very short years, we will have the complete collapse of these deep sea stocks.

JH: This seems to auger very ill for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, which is on the agenda this autumn, isn’t it?

SS: It’s on the agenda now. It’s the talking point of the Parliament because we have been involved in major debates over the future of the Common Fisheries Policy. We now have a split down the middle where we have a group of member states calling themselves "Amigos de la Pesca," "Friends of Fisheries," and a Spanish initiative and that’s, of course, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Italy and bizarrely, Ireland. They’ve all got themselves together at Ministerial level. They actually held a meeting three weeks ago at the weekend in Lisbon and drew up their own amendments to the Commission’s proposal for Common Fisheries Policy Reform. So, it’s an extraordinary and bizarre situation where you have member states ganging up together to confound the policy of the European Commission.

JH: What reaction do you get from this Southern group of countries when they are given the Hard evidence of what has happened to fish stocks elsewhere?

SS: They have a huge appetite for eating fish. They have great consumer demand in the Southern member states, much more so than in the North where we are inclined to eat red meats. And, as a result, it is a political priority in these member states where they have very large fishing fleets and tens of thousands of people involved in the marine fishery and in the processing sector. It is a political priority. I mean, even in Madrid, hundreds of miles from the sea, if there are no fish on the fish market slabs on any given day, then it will become a political crisis. I am sure if you went to Paris or London, it would not be the same. The average MP in London would not know what fish he was eating with his or her fish and chips.

JH: It seems then, what’s needed is a massive educational campaign to raise awareness throughout those countries.

SS: Before I became Chairman of the Fisheries Committee, I was instrumental in forming a group of North Sea MEPs, if you like, as a counter-balance to the Amigos de la Pesca – the Friends of Fishing - we wanted to create a "Friends of Fish" grouping. Our argument was that if there are no fish, there will be no fishermen. And, if there are no fishermen, we really, then, have a crisis. I mean, the Canadians discovered this when the Cod stocks collapsed off the Grand Banks in Newfoundland. And, it cost the Canadian Government $5Billion in socio-economic costs and welfare costs. It’s actually a hell of a lot cheaper to try to decommission fishing vessels, put fishermen to new jobs out of the fishing industry and help your fish stocks to rebuild until you’ve got a balanced, sustainable fishery. It’s a lot cheaper doing that than it is allowing the fishery to collapse and picking up the tab for the consequences later.

JH: And, will you be going forward with that pressure group you are mentioning?

SS: I am in a difficult position as Chairman of the Committee because I am supposed to be even-handed and looking at it from all sides. But I am afraid I side here with the view that unless we get the EU fishing fleet into balance with the resources available for catching, we are heading down the road to disaster.

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