Commission opens debate on rights-based fisheries management

The Commission wants to improve the understanding of how fishing rights such as licences, individual fishing quotas, days at sea and/or limited access to fishing grounds are set up and used within the EU and to discuss best practices.

The Communication assesses various systems in relation to their contribution to meeting the aims of the Common Fisheries Policy. The setting up of fisheries management systems is up to each Member State. However, their characteristics have a bearing on the economic situation of the EU fleets. The Commission therefore wants to launch a debate on these issues with stakeholders and Member States and intends to come back on this at the beginning of 2008.

Rights-based management includes any system of allocating individual fishing rights to fishermen, fishing vessels, enterprises, cooperatives or fishing communities. Such systems, which exist in all fisheries management regimes in one form or another basically define the rights to use fisheries resources. Fishing rights have a value and can be traded. The trade in fishing rights was first addressed in the context of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, when the Commission committed itself to producing a report on the scope for provisions within EU and/or national fisheries management systems for a system of tradable fishing rights, which can be individual or collective.

Markets in fishing rights exist in most Member States. In some, national regimes specify that days at sea or part of the catch quota can be sold or leased. In others, those who wish to acquire more fishing rights have to buy a fishing vessel. The degree of transparency or openness of these transactions may vary greatly depending on how the system is formalised. Even when they are not specified by national law, in most Member States such markets exist de facto. The cost of acquiring these rights is at times substantial and can have a major effect on the development of the fisheries sector. The debate on rights-based management should explore ways to facilitate greater transparency, improve legal certainty and security, and ultimately achieve greater economic efficiency for fishermen, which will also mean minimising costs to the rest of society.

The debate also needs to address the potential negative effects of such systems – such as the risk that rights are concentrated in the hands of a few large companies to the detriment of small coastal fishing communities – and the way they could be addressed.

During the consultation period, which will last for a year, the Commission will carry out studies and organise seminars and meetings. The Commission will sum up the debate and assess the need for follow-up at EU and national levels in the first quarter of 2008.