Saturday, 17th December 2011
Final curtain for Brussels fisheries pantomime?
The deal struck in the early hours of Friday morning in Brussels will not provide much Christmas cheer for UK and particularly Scotland’s fishermen. Despite the best efforts of Richard Benyon and Richard Lochhead - UK and Scottish Fisheries Ministers - the final outcome will still mean further cuts in the number of days our fishermen can go to sea. While they managed to avoid the most savage additional penalty cuts that the European Commission were proposing, which would have kept the Scottish whitefish fleet tied up for ten days out of every fourteen, the final decision will be deeply frustrating for UK fishermen.
Against a background of increased stocks, with even the scientists agreeing that haddock, nephrops (prawns) and even cod stocks are expanding in the North Sea, it will come as a blow that our fishermen are being given increased quotas but not enough days to catch them. The only really good news is the 200% increase in west of Scotland haddock that our Ministers secured after a tough fight.
Speaking following the conclusion of the Fisheries Council meeting, Scottish Euro MP Struan Stevenson said:
“This annual circus, which sees Europe’s Fisheries ministers arguing late into the night with the European Commission’s bureaucrats, has become almost as familiar as the Christmas pantomime. It is the most vivid manifestation of the discredited system of fisheries micro-management from Brussels. Happily we may now be able to sweep this aside with the complete reform of the Common Fisheries Policy that is currently underway.
“Even the European Commission now acknowledges that the day to day management of fisheries should be devolved to Member States. In future, UK fishermen, scientists and politicians will be able to decide together on the best measures for avoiding by-catch, ending discards and fishing sustainably in a way that protects fish stocks and sustains fishing communities. Hopefully this will bring the final curtain down on the Brussels Christmas pantomime.”
Note: Struan Stevenson is a Conservative Euro MP for Scotland and Senior Vice President of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee.
