Elements with tag fisheries
Europêche, the leading representative body for the fishing industry in Europe, is delighted to announce the inclusion of the Danish Fishers PO (DFPO) as its newest member. Currently representing over 550 fishing vessels, DFPO significantly contributes to Danish coastal and local communities, supporting 16,000 jobs and generating €1.8 billion in economic activity. During its General Assembly held today in Brussels, Europêche members endorsed and warmly welcomed DFPO as new member, marking a significant milestone in strengthening the voice of European fisheries.
The EU fishing industry is deeply disappointed with the partial agreement reached between the UK, Norway and the Faroe Islands on the sharing of the Northeast Atlantic mackerel fishing opportunities. This agreement does not solve the critical issue of catches exceeding the Total Allowable Catch set in line with scientific advice. Instead, it rewards the setting of excessive, inflated unilateral quotas by some parties in recent years. Therefore, the EU industry urges all Coastal States to resume their consultations on a comprehensive sharing arrangement that should reflect genuine, sustainable track records and interests. It also calls on the European Commission and the Council of the EU to take concrete action against the setting of excessive, artificially increased unilateral quotas and make use of the instruments at their disposal, such as trade measures.
Europêche, the leading trade body representing the fishing industry in Europe, has formally requested Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to address the imminent vacancy that will be left by Commissioner Sinkevičius and ensure stability in fisheries governance during this transitional period.
With the European elections approaching, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced her commitment to appointing a full-time fisheries Commissioner for her second term. This role will focus on ensuring that the next generations can make a good living out of this craft and profession. The fishing sector represented by Europêche welcomes the announcement hoping that the new Commissioner brings back a balance between biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources and food security. The sector recalls the importance of placing fishers at the heart of EU policy making in the new Commission’s mandate. Additionally, Europêche calls for primary food production and food sovereignty to be elevated on the Commission's agenda and structured at the Vice-Presidency level.
Failed policies such as the landing obligation will remain untouched. The sector warns that the CFP is being undermined by environmental policies.
Europêche, the leading trade body representing the fishing industry in Europe, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Innomar AS, a pioneering company that provides ocean technology for fisheries, aquaculture, ocean data and marine operations. By entering into this MoU, both organisations wish to explore new ways of enhancing sustainable fishing and new methods of fishing in the EU using state of the art technology and systems developed by Innomar. In turn, this can create new business opportunities and enable fishers to harvest healthy fish while continuing to minimise impact on the ecosystems.
The new joint project of the European social partners for sea fisheries (Europêche and ETF) has kicked off today in Amsterdam. Following a selection process, Europêche and ETF will count with the participation of specialists to develop a wide range of studies for a safer, healthier and more worker-friendly fisheries sector in Europe and worldwide. The action will focus on trade measures to combat forced labour, develop guidelines on recruitment of migrant fishers, develop a training programme for medical examination of fishers and update a mobile app to facilitate communication on fishing vessels (FisherySpeak).
Recommendations are a wish-list of unrealistic and unachievable targets far from the fisheries realities. An unworkable EU Taxonomy will impact on the ability of operators to attract funding for their sustainable fishing activities.
Today, fishing organisations from 14 EU countries representing over 20 000 fishers and 7 000 vessels, launched in the European Parliament the European Bottom Fishings Alliance (EBFA). Representatives of the alliance presented the reality of these fisheries across Europe and defended the use of active bottom gears as a sustainable activity. The press conference hosted by the first vice-chair of the Committee on Fisheries, MEP Peter van Dalen, drew political attention over the valuable contribution of these fleets in stark contrast with the negative perception expressed by the European Commission towards bottom gears. Decision-makers present fueled concerns over possible implications of phasing out bottom contacting gears in the upcoming EU Action Plan to further protect fisheries resources and marine ecosystems in the context of EU’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy.
Fishing industry representatives will urgently organize a meeting to address the situation and continue strengthening Euro-Moroccan fishing relations.
The EU fishing industry is calling for immediate EU action to stop Norway and Faroe Islands in their massive overfishing of the Northeast Atlantic mackerel stock. We reiterate our call on the EU Commission and Council to act swiftly and decisively on this reckless and irresponsible behaviour by using the instruments at its disposal such as trade measures and the IUU regulation.
WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies are now entering the final stage. After two decades of dialogue, trade ministers from 164 countries are resolved to secure an agreement ahead of the ministerial conference of 15 July this year. The European fishing industry represented by Europêche fully sustains the need to curb harmful subsidies globally, similarly to what has been done in the EU in the early 2000’s. In this direction, the fishing sector calls on EU institutions and Member states to defend the public aid system established under EU legislation, including the newly adopted Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFAF). Likewise, the sector urges the EU not to succumb to external pressure and defend fuel tax relief schemes. The opposite will drive the fleet to ruin.
The EU pelagic fishing industry, organized under the banners of EAPO and Europêche, strongly rejects the decision made public yesterday by the Norwegian government to unilaterally increase Norway’s share in the mackerel fishery by 55% and is calling on the EU to take immediate action by whatever means to stop it.
Last Friday an “explanatory note” on the revision of the EU-fisheries control system1 was reportedly circulated by the European Commission services to a few Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), mainly within the Committee on Environment. The note sounded the alarm about the position democratically adopted in the Committee on Fisheries (PECH) which “could reward and legalise underreporting, lead to massive overfishing and allow illegal discards to continue undetected and threaten the sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources”. According to Europêche, these statements unfairly put into question the good record of compliance of EU fleets, damages the image of the sector, lacks empathy with fishers and connection with fisheries’ realities. On top of that, the note clearly interferes the independent co-legislator role of the European Parliament.
Large pelagic drift nets, are nets of over 2,5-kilometer-long and many meters deep, that are left drifting in the ocean to catch any living creature that happens to swim by. The international community and the EU have long adopted a global moratorium on all large-scale pelagic drift-nets fishing in the world’s oceans and seas, especially to catch migratory species such as tuna. However, their use is still overspread, especially in the Indian Ocean, responsible nowadays for around 20% of the total catches of yellowfin tuna and high levels of by-catch of threatened and protected species such as sharks, marine mammals and turtles. The tuna fishing industry represented by Europêche calls on the EU and IOTC parties to stop turning a blind eye on this long-lasting problem and make a stand against these illegal practices during the next IOTC meeting.
Charlina Vitcheva, the new Director General of the DG for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, was welcomed yesterday by the representatives of the European fishing sector, Europêche and EAPO. The meeting allowed the fishers' representatives to present and discuss the key topics with Ms Vitcheva.
The European Commission has unveiled today its proposal for an EU Biodiversity strategy calling for urgent action to protect nature in the EU and worldwide. The strategy claims to set up a full transformative plan towards an EU environmentally-friendly food production system that preserves and restores biodiversity. Europêche agrees that the EU must be ambitious in setting high environmental standards but not at the cost of increasing imports and lowering EU food production. EU fishermen oppose the new strategy since it is discriminatory, undermines the viability of the sector by decreasing its productivity and capacity to invest in improving social and environmental performance, further restricting the sustainable use of the oceans, subjecting fish products to additional taxation and making fisheries the target of discrediting campaigns.
The European Commission has launched its annual consultation on the state of fish stocks and the preparation for setting fish quotas for next year marked by the objective to fish all stocks at maximum sustainable yield (MSY1) levels by 2020. The good news is that most of the stocks in the North East Atlantic have already reached this target. However, and despite generalised fishing effort reductions, some fish populations are struggling to rebuild or even to remain at current level. The answer may be found in the latest scientific advices which revealed major challenges in some fisheries caused by the destabilizing effect of the full introduction of the landing obligation and environmental factors such as climate change. The European fishing industry represented by Europêche expresses once again its concern over the stated aim to have all stocks at biomass levels that can produce Maximum Sustainable Yields will prove to be counterproductive, since the production capacity of our sea bas
This morning, the European Parliament (EP) Committee on Fisheries gave its consent to conclude the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the EU and the Kingdom of Morocco. Europêche welcomes the important step forward towards the final adoption of the fisheries deal. The agreement not only promotes sustainable and responsible fisheries for the EU and Morocco, whilst securing mutual benefits, but also contributes to the strict observance of international law. However, a last and critical step is still required, the final approval of the EP in plenary session in mid-February 2019. Europêche calls on all political groups to back the agreement to continue strengthening the good cooperation and business partnership in fisheries with our strategic neighbour which dates back to 1995.
Europêche, the leading European organization representing the fishing industry, held high-level meetings yesterday with Executive Vice President Maroš Šefčovič and Member States’ officials. These meetings were a timely opportunity to discuss several critical matters for the European fisheries sector, amid the ongoing period of political transition within the EU.