Europeche has dismissed accusations that fishing industry representatives influenced the EU Council’s (EC) negotiations on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas and that the Fisheries Ministers subsequently set the level of TACs above that advised by scientists.
The representative body for fishermen and fishing vessel owners in the EU was reacting to last week’s declaration by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) that fishing industry lobbyists used press passes to access ministerial negotiations on fishing quotas at the EC building last year, following an investigation between CEO staff and Seas at Risk.
President of Europêche, Javier Garat, said: "It is naive and ridiculous to think that the mere presence in the press room of the Council building can shape the final decision on TACs & quotas. They result from closeddoor and rigorous negotiations between decision-makers and after a lengthy process of consultations with all stakeholders, including the industry and the NGO community, which last for months."
Europêche stated that it remains committed to openness and transparency in all its activities and that its members have always respected access rules to the Council building.
Europeche said the report ‘Fishing for Influence’, “trivializes” the decision-making process of the Council of Fisheries Ministers in setting fishing opportunities and management measures and “manipulates the interpretation” of the scientific recommendations by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) to reach biased conclusions.
ICES accounts for several scenarios in its yearly advice to achieve Maximum Sustainable Yields (MSY), Europeche explained, adding that ICES only takes into account biological considerations, whereas the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) includes socioeconomic analysis in its advice. Additionally, the Advisory Councils also provides advice.
Mr Garat said that given the EC formulates its proposal and the Council of Fisheries Ministers makes its decision on fishing quotas on the advice of ICES, STECF and the Advisory Councils, “the statement of these NGOs that the Council of Ministers establishes, every year, TACs above the scientific recommendations is simply false and manipulative”.
According to the latest STECF report, the number of over-exploited stocks decreased from more than 70% to close to 40% over the last ten years.
