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Ms Maria Damanaki, Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, was guest of honour yesterday, at Europêche’s General Assembly meeting, which was chaired by the Europêche President, Mr Javier Garat.
For up to two hours, the Commissioner listened to the European concerns regarding equipment of fishing vessels, in the framework of the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP reform.
“Company closures, job losses, euro scepticism, a fisheries sector weakened by the surrounding crisis, putting forward arguments by ecologists, and all this despite a concerted effort by professionals to reduce pressure on stocks and cooperate more closely with scientists,” were the words of the President of Europêche himself, who insisted on the need for increased mutual trust between the catching sector and the Commission, in the interest of both parties.
The following matters were then approached, running straight from Europêche’s known position, namely the importance of maintaining structured consultation at a European level respecting the existence and functionality of the sectoral European organisations; banning discards; respecting Maximum Sustainable Yield; introducing Transferable Fishing Concessions; CFP regionalization; the importance of small-scale fisheries represented by Europêche; TAC proposals for the year 2012, ban on shark finning at sea ; external dimension of the CFP (RFMOs¹ and fisheries agreements with Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Morocco and Gabon) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.
Commissioner Damanaki pointed out the need for cooperation with fishing shipowners in Europe at a time when, so she said, radical changes brought about by the CFP were needed. “It is however important that we seek a balanced approach with all parties involved in this policy, which concerns all our European citizens. The new framework for consultation at European level will have to match other General Directorates’ modalities,” she added
In response to the above-mentioned concerns, Ms Damanaki stated that the Commission was doing everything in its power to conclude sustainable fisheries agreements. She also requested that Europêche come forward with two or three concrete matters for in-depth discussion, and to deal with these in January next year, and to come up with constructive proposals (such as policy regionalization, matters concerning discards etc.) something which the Associaton’s representatives were on the whole glad to do.
¹RFMOs: Regional Fisheries Management Organisations
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