EN Official Journal of the European Union C 458/52

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down a prohibition on driftnet fisheries, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 850/98, (EC) No 812/2004, (EC) No 2187/2005 and No 1967/2006 and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 894/97’

COM(2014) 265 final — 2014/0138 (COD)

(2014/C 458/09)

Rapporteur: Mr McDonogh

On 22 May 2014 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under Article 43 (2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, on the

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down a prohibition on driftnet fisheries, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 850/98, (EC) No 812/2004 and (EC) No 1967/2006 and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 894/97

COM(2014) 265 final — 2014/0138 (COD).

The Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 18 July 2014.

At its 501st plenary session, held on 10 and 11 September 2014 (meeting of 10 September), the European Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 150 votes to one with two abstentions.

1. Conclusions and recommendations

1.1 The Commission should phase in a complete ban on driftnet fishing given the damage being done to the environment and the poor control over this sector by all Member States.

1.2 The Committee is aware of the fact that this ban adversely affects employment in certain Member States. As a civil society body, we would like to express our concern about any loss of income and encourage the Commission to find adequate measures for solving this problem.

1.3 The Committee proposes to use the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to support the transition to other fishing methods.

2. Background

2.1 The Commission intends to amend Council Regulations (EC) No 850/98, (EC) No 812/2004, (EC) No 2187/2005 and (EC) No 1967/2006 and repeal Council Regulation (EC) No 894/97.

2.2 In the early 1990s, following specific United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolutions, which called for a moratorium on large-scale pelagic driftnet fishing (i.e. gears longer than 2,5 km) on the High Seas, the EU developed legislation on driftnet fisheries.

2.3 The current EU legislative framework on driftnets has however shown weaknesses since existing rules are easy to circumvent. The absence of EU rules on gear characteristics (e.g. maximum mesh size, maximum twine thickness, hanging ratio, etc.) and gear use (e.g. maximum distance from the coast, soaking time, fishing season, etc.), combined with the possibility to keep on board other fishing gears, made it possible for fishermen to illegally use driftnets to catch species prohibited to be caught with this fishing gear, while declaring that they have been caught for example with another gear (e.g. longlines). Cooperation amongst fishermen jointly working together could easily bring to use fishing gears much longer than 2,5 km.

2.4 Incidental catches (or a high risk of interactions) with strictly protected species such as sturgeons, sea turtles, sea birds and cetaceans have been reported.

2.5 In addition, great lengths of drift nets are lost at sea every year, especially during severe storms. Because the nets are manufactured of synthetic materials that are highly resistant to degradation, they continue to snare fish, sharks, mammals, birds, turtles and other creatures for many years as so called ghost nets. Little is known about the magnitude of this problem but it is undoubtedly an important cause of mortality of marine animals such as wild Baltic salmon, tuna, squid, swordfish, etc.

2.6 Against this background, it is clear that serious environmental and conservation concerns linked to the use of these fishing gears still persist.

2.7 For most of the fishers, driftnetting represents only a few months per year of fishing activity, with several fishers using driftnets for less than half a month per year. Thus the total prohibition to use drift nets is not expected to result in a corresponding reduction of fishers which will continue to operate with other gears as already authorised in their fishing licence.