Fisheries ministers struggle to agree new policy

Fisheries ministers struggled yesterday for a clear route to ensure Europe’s fish stocks recover and provide a decent livelihood for their fishermen.

At a special meeting in Luxembourg, the usual battles between member states threatened to scupper what was to be a major overhaul of the EU’s fishing policy that all now admit has wasted millions of euro in subsidies and resulted in three quarters of fish stocks in danger.

A European Commission plan is meant to see fish stocks revived and the industry thrive by 2020. Proposals include changing the quota structure that year after year see ministers largely ignore scientific advice and carve up stocks among the various countries. The plan suggests changing this to use multi-annual plans that take into account the longer term needs to ensure stocks recover and are healthy enough to yield sufficient catch without jeopardising their future by 2015.