The European Parliament’s (EP) Fisheries’ Committee has pushed the door wider open for the growth of local stock management and traditional rights for small operations to fish and earn a decent living.
The almost unanimous committee report sailed through the first April session of the EP, reports Peter O’Neill, and told the EU Commission not to rush into a plan for a one-size-fits-all “rights-based management” (RBM) system across the EU.
The Commission has recognised that RBM has a “significant complementary role in Community fisheries management”, while the CFP’s TACs and quotas have not solved management problems.
The EP wants more study of the complex and potential conflicts over definitions of stock “ownership” and a deeper look at existing successful RBM systems which have also cut discards. It is keen to ensure “advantages do not accrue to large companies at the expense of small-scale operators or community-based fisheries”, the report said.
