A4-0298/97

Resolution on the Common Fisheries Policy after the year 2002

The European Parliament,

- having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of its Committee on Fisheries (A4-0298/97),

A. whereas the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) as it currently exists ceases on 31 December 2002,

B. having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 3760/92 of 20 December 1992 establishing a Community system for fisheries and aquaculture, and in particular Article 14(2) thereof (('By 31 December 2001 at the latest, the Commission shall present to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the fisheries situation in the Community and, in particular, on the economic and social situation of coastal regions, on the state of the resources and their expected development, and on the implementation of this Regulation. On the basis of that report, the Council, acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 43 of the Treaty, shall decide, before 31 December 2002, on any necessary adjustments to be made, in particular as regards Article 7, and on the provisions which could follow the arrangements referred to in Article 6 of this Regulation.' (OJ L 389, 31.12.1992, p. 1))),

C. whereas the CFP as it stands presupposes a derogation from the principle of freedom of access to Community fishing grounds, as stated in Articles 6 and 7 of Regulation (EEC) No 3760/92, and whereas this derogation will end on 1 January 2003, unless the Council should decide otherwise,

D. whereas this derogation was incorporated into the fisheries policy from 1973 onwards with a view to protecting the adaptation of the fishing industries of the various Member States,

E. whereas the CFP should be applied with due regard to international agreements,

F. having regard to the economic and social importance of the fisheries sector in the EU, in view of the large number of jobs directly and indirectly related to it, and to the high degree of dependence on the sector in many regions, in relation not only to fishing itself but to numerous other upstream and downstream activities,

G. whereas it is important for fishermen and their associations to be involved in decisions relating to the CFP,

H. whereas the present CFP is generally agreed to have failed to meet most of its objectives,

I. whereas, however, despite its defects, the CFP inaugurated in 1983 has had the great merit of endeavouring to adopt an overall approach to the sector,

J. whereas the CFP constitutes a whole, the different aspects of which (resources, monitoring, markets, structural policies, social policy and external policy) are complementary and whereas, therefore, any reform should ensure that these different aspects remain consistent with each other,

K. whereas the total absence of any harmonization of conditions of employment or social protection leads to a distortion of the cost of labour, and hence tends to result in relocation of the fleet and processing firms within the European Union itself,

L. whereas the conservation and management of resources policy has been unable, with the instruments at its disposal, to guarantee the desired sustainability of resources at a level above the safe biological minimum, which is one of the major objectives of the CFP,

M. whereas the development of the full potential of Community fishing resources, their conservation, and enforcement need to be encouraged, and whereas the Community should support more effective research and development of resources to facilitate the achievement of these aims,

N. whereas the basic pillars of the conservation policy are the system of TACs and quotas, and the principle of relative stability,

O. whereas the goal of the principle of relative stability was to ensure the stability of the national and regional fishing industries so as to allow them gradually to adapt to the new situation of the Single Market,

P. whereas the system of TACs and quotas was introduced with a view to guaranteeing rational use of resources and controlling fishing activity,

Q. whereas the fisheries sector is a declining one,

R. whereas the structural policy was established in an effort to remedy the structural problems of the Community fleet and particularly its problems of over-capacity, by means inter alia of the multi-annual guidance programmes (MGPs),

S. whereas the structural policy has helped modernize the fisheries production structure in virtually all the Member States, but has failed in its attempt to reduce the size of fleets to match the availability of resources,

T. whereas the process of adaptation of the Community fleet has an enormous social impact, contributing to higher unemployment in many regions and accentuating regional inequalities, while failing to create new means or alternatives which could counteract those effects,

U. accepting the duty to fish responsibly in whichever ocean body the fleets of the European Community are active,

V. whereas external resources policy is an important element of the CFP with regard to meeting the Community's multiple international obligations in the fisheries field,

W. whereas relationships with third countries in the fisheries sector have steadily grown in importance over the years, and whereas these must continue to be negotiated by the Commission in order to ensure transparency, respect by the EU for international treaties and equal rights of participation by all EU Member States,

X. whereas the revised CFP should give due importance to the aquaculture sector, given its potential in terms of domestic supply of Community markets and the processing industry, and in terms of reducing dependence on imports, creating alternative employment and generating new industries,

Y. whereas the fishery products processing industry within the EU is both highly developed and dependent on the other policies which may be applied not only to the fisheries sector, but also to competing food sectors,

Z. whereas, in particular, the supply of raw fish products to the fish processing industry in the Community from the Community's own fishing fleet is diminishing all the time and has now fallen to less than 50%, thus further increasing its dependence on imports from third countries,

AA. whereas the common organization of the market in fisheries products has allowed liberalization of sales with no restrictions of any kind throughout the Community; whereas moreover the monitoring and enforcement of the rules governing trade with third countries in fishery products is ineffective and lacking in transparency,

AB. whereas the Union's trade relations in the international fishery products market have been liberalized by the consolidation within the GATT of a common customs tariff for these products, and by the exceptions and derogations of the system of generalized preferences, and cooperation or association agreements, inter alia,

AC. whereas the market in fishery products tends to reflect all the other policies,

AD. whereas Community control measures are largely ineffectual, principally due to the fact that the classification of infringements and the application of controls by the Member States are both piecemeal and lacking in homogeneity and that there is an absence of uniform penalties for infringements,

AE. whereas monitoring and control should not be understood as meaning merely checks on the exploitation of resources, but also on the transport and marketing of fish, and whereas such controls should also be applied to other areas of the CFP such as compliance with the provisions of the MGPs or the application of the same standards to imported products as apply to Community producers,

AF. whereas decision-making in regard to the current CFP is highly centralized,

AG. whereas on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, the effectiveness of many of the tasks to be discharged under the CFP is increased when those carrying them out are Member States and regional authorities, and whereas it is necessary to increase the participation of all the social actors involved in fisheries in actually implementing the CFP,

1. Stresses that the CFP must continue to constitute the legal framework for the management of fishing after 2002, with a clear distinction between small-scale local fishing and large-scale commercial fishing; stresses that after 2002 exceptions to the principle of free and equal access to Community waters must remain possible on socioeconomic and biological and environmental grounds; stresses that the waters within the twelve-mile territorial limit should continue to be for the exclusive use and management of the coastal Member State concerned;

2. Stresses the importance of treating fisheries as simply another sector of economic activity, a sector including a closely related set of factors concerning the environment, human resources and the protection of species, and of encouraging the capacity of enterprise (private, cooperative and craft industries) to rationalize the industry;

3. Stresses that the revision of the basic principles of the CFP and any changes in its various sectors will necessarily have social and economic repercussions which should be assessed carefully, and in respect of which it is essential to make timely provision, i.e. already at the planning stage, for suitable support measures for the groups concerned;

4. Calls for greater harmonization of working conditions, safety and social protection standards and a gradual reduction in the amount of time spent at sea; also calls for local contracts to be harmonized in order to ensure that all workers in the sector are treated fairly from the point of view of pay and social conditions;

5. Insists that any decision concerning the revision of the CFP, and also the implementation and management thereof, must be based on the involvement of the social partners concerned, in particular fishermen and their associations, whose support is essential to ensure respect for and correct implementation of any management measure;

6. Considers that the views of fishermen and their associations should be taken into account in the establishment of TACs and quotas and with regard to the use of European conversion and structural fund instruments;

Environmental aspects of the future CFP

7. Stresses that the concept of sustainability is intrinsic to the exploitation of fishing resources, but calls for the concept of sustainable development to lay particular stress on the need for conservation objectives to focus on ecosystems as a whole, which means that fishing activity must be compatible with the proper preservation of marine habitat and of the other species which share that habitat with fishing stocks; moreover, due account must also be taken of the impact of uncontrolled proliferation of predator populations on fish stocks and appropriate strategies must be developed as a consequence;

8. Believes that the future CFP must lay particular stress on ensuring:

- that conservation objectives take account of certain aspects of full- blown conservation;

- that the precautionary approach underlies management of living marine resources;

- that fishing gear and techniques are selective in character while preserving optimum capacity for the fishing of target species, and encouraging research in this field;

- that, where scientific evidence demonstrates it to be necessary, marine and coastal areas totally or partially protected from fishing activity are established;

- that resources are exploited efficiently, in the sense that the stocks slaughtered by fishing activity should be efficiently converted into protein;

- a major increase in scientific research into marine ecosystems by the EU alongside other international organizations, as a part of its existing research budgets;

9. Believes that it is necessary to establish a system which provides the necessary flexibility for reducing to a minimum the practice of discarding fish, by means of an 'inter-species flexibility' ensuring that no species caught is discarded due to the fact there is no quota for it, and by supporting research into the upgrading of species of little commercial value, which are discarded;

10. Notes the idea of introducing ecological labels granted by the EU for marine products which have been caught in accordance with rules guaranteeing the surrounding environment and the stocks themselves, but requires more scientific advice on the practicalities of the concept;

The need to balance fleet size and resources

11. Stresses the need to adapt the fleet to existing resources, which means that Member States' strict compliance with the MGPs should be encouraged by appropriate financial incentives to help fishermen to leave the industry;

12. Stresses that cutting back the fleets must be carried out on the basis of fair and rational criteria, with the largest cut being made in those sections of the fleet which fish for the most depleted stocks;

13. Stresses that social considerations must be a major concern, which means that the reduction in fishing effort must take account of the socioeconomic effects on areas heavily dependent on fisheries, where short-term alternatives cannot be found; recommends that other possibilities should be considered which do not entail a general cutback in vessels;

14. Observes that the rebalancing of fishing capacity and resources could have a very considerable financial impact on the Community budget over the next few years, during a period of tight budgetary austerity;

Arrangements for conserving resources

15. Believes that the future system for conserving and managing resources must be both simple and efficient, and complemented by a technical measures policy whose rules are clear and have the support and acceptance of fishermen, who must be actively involved in their formulation;

16. Stresses that encouragement should be given to concluding local or regional agreements based on the subsidiarity principle and adapted to the specific characteristics of fishing areas, with rules governing access, closed areas and the types of fishing gear which may be used, in order to encourage rational resource exploitation;

17. Puts forward the following proposals:

- TACs should be established on the basis of biological and socioeconomic factors;

- the main goal of the conservation policy should be to safeguard at specific critical levels the biomass of the stock of breeding fish, in order to guarantee that stocks are capable of regenerating themselves;

- the distribution of TACs should be rationalized by allocating fishing rights amongst fishermen, taking the principle of relative stability as the point of departure;

- the possible transferability of fishing rights should be examined;

- any new conservation measures should be implemented within a timescale which will permit a smooth adjustment to these on the part of the fishing sector;

- provision should be made for greater involvement of local fishermen in the process of decision-making in matters affecting them;

- specific measures should be taken to safeguard the traditional small inshore fishing fleet given its importance to peripheral fishing communities;

- the 6-mile and 12-mile limits should be retained, in order to protect the interest of local communities;

- more research and development should be undertaken as regards conservation techniques and levels in order to promote greater understanding and support for these techniques;

External resources policy

18. Asks that the Community fishing industry should be offered the same arrangements as other competing food sectors regarding requirements and compensations in the context of relations with third countries;

19. Calls for fisheries agreements negotiated by the Commission to observe the principles already agreed by Parliament and to be adapted to the varying circumstances of each of the third countries concerned, which means that the types of agreements involved should be varied enough to reflect those circumstances;

20. Stresses that third-generation agreements negotiated by the Commission, i.e. those which seek to pursue Community fishing interests in terms of the state of development of the country in question, should be selectively used, and reserved for those cases in which the countries already possess a sufficient level of development to allow them to absorb Community aid and compensation in ways which will benefit all those concerned;

21. Supports the application of the principle of subsidiarity to private- sector commercial fishery agreements not negotiated by the Commission, which would make it possible, in certain cases, for fishing opportunities to be negotiated by the Member State(s) concerned, who would then be solely responsible for the financial compensation involved, without prejudice to the existence of a suitable minimum Community framework and subject to the provisions of international fisheries agreements and maritime law;

22. Proposes that Community fishing interests in international waters be defended in terms of the strictest respect for international law, which imposes a reciprocal requirement on the other parties involved, and of the conservation of fishery resources in international waters using the criteria which apply to Community waters;

23. Believes that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the sea should constitute the permanent, stable basis governing deep-sea fisheries at international level, with a view to maintaining the current balance between the interests of the states whose coastlines are concerned and those which are fishing on the open seas;

Structural policy

24. Stresses that the fisheries sector is a declining one and that the basic objective of the new structural policy will be to assist those in possession of fishing rights to restructure their fleets with a view to more rational exploitation of stocks and to provide incentives to those owners who wish to withdraw from fishing activity;

25. Stresses that the objectives of the Structural Policy should be:

- to develop the fish products processing industries, which will, in economic and labour terms, continue to constitute an alternative to possible cuts in employment in coastal areas;

- to maintain a special policy for small-scale traditional fishing fleets, which will require flanking support measures for the coastal populations dependent on these resources;

- to provide support measures for adapting fleets to the available quotas on the basis of voluntary business projects, with the objective of improving the viability of operations;

- to take action with regard to an integrated approach to the development of coastal areas, with the objective of guaranteeing the preservation of their economic activities and promoting the appropriate exploitation of their resources;

Action on aquaculture

26. Firmly believes that the revised CFP must view the rational development of sea farming techniques as one of its priorities, in view of its potential for supplying high-quality protein to the Community market and as an alternative source of employment not directly linked to fishing;

27. Warns, however, that uncontrolled development of these techniques, without proper forward planning, has grave consequences for ecosystems; they are capable of interfering with other uses, current or foreseeable, of marine waters; believes therefore that it is essential that a map showing how waters are being or could be used should be produced forthwith, taking account of the types of potential farming, the waters themselves, market requirements and possible interference with other uses of the waters concerned; stresses that there is a need to develop further knowledge regarding veterinary inspections and the risks associated with administering disease-control measures for aquaculture;

28. Believes that in order to achieve this, the most extensive use possible should be made of the principle of subsidiarity, both because the issue involves the use of exclusively coastal, and even inland, waters and because of the value to future Community aquaculture policy of exchanges of information on experience already acquired, problems detected and current research;

Processing industry

29. Draws attention to the interrelatedness of this sector with the other fisheries policies, particularly structural policy (since the sector largely depends for its supplies on catches by the Community or Community aquaculture) and the COM; when drawing up these policies, the objectives of the CFP after 2002 should take account of the needs of the processing industry;

30. Calls for the encouragement of research into and development of new types of product and ways of presenting them, and especially for information campaigns on how to use species which can be caught or farmed, but which have hitherto been of little value to the fishing and processing sectors of the industry because of lack of knowledge on the part of the consumer;

31. Recommends that the introduction of a 'Community quality label' should be investigated for products processed in the Community and/or originating in Community waters;

The common organization of the fisheries markets

32. Warns that, as the operation of the current COM has shown, no future policy on market organization can be viably applied, nor will it serve its purpose of balancing the Community market, if it is not in perfect harmony with all the other policies. For that reason, despite the particular characteristics which it possesses as such an open market, all decisions in other fields should be examined for their repercussions on the COM before being implemented;

33. Stresses the need to encourage the centralization of supply on the part of producers, by means of the creation and development of cooperatives or producers' organizations with the aim of maintaining producer prices and boosting producers' bargaining potential vis-à-vis the marketing and processing sectors, on the basis of suitable Community funding;

34. Proposes certain basic rules which the new COM should follow:

- a complete information service on the behaviour of the various markets, on a daily basis if possible, with the drawing up of a list of products most subject to major price swings, if necessary, allowing an effective intervention mechanism to be introduced;

- proper transparent technical health controls, to guarantee homogeneous quality standards throughout the Community, and the strict, regular monitoring of products coming in from third countries;

- the establishment of effective mechanisms for preventing crises, so that operators can take prior action and circumvent the delays involved in waiting for the appropriate Community regulation to be published;

- upgrading the role of producers' organizations and providing incentives for prior contracts with the processing industries, and also introducing an effective product identification policy to enable identification to be made at each production stage and allow it to be assessed;

35. Calls for an in-depth investigation into the operation of SGP systems to ensure they are serving the purposes for which they were envisaged;

Policy on controls

36. Believes that the enormous shortcomings of the current system of Community controls originate in the multiplicity and disparity of the criteria and laws of the Member States, which are responsible for carrying out controls, and in particular in the lack of resources for carrying out controls and the resulting inadequate depth of controls;

37. Proposes that the system be rationalized by drawing up legislation and a system of penalties imposing common minimum standards;

38. Stresses that, without prejudice to the foregoing, the Community inspection and control system should be strengthened;

39. Asks that policy on controls should not in practice be limited only to matters concerning conservation, but should be extended to cover transport and marketing of products and to compliance with all Community regulations, including the MGPs;

40. Calls in particular for a stepping-up of monitoring of adherence to quotas, with more stringent surveillance being introduced especially at Community ports where catches are landed in large numbers;

41. Calls furthermore for the effectiveness of existing controls on products to be increased so that no outside product should enter the Community without meeting the standards demanded of the Community's own producers;

Decentralizing the CFP

42. Recalls that the principle of subsidiarity could feature much more prominently in the future CFP, and that there is a whole series of responsibilities which can be far more effectively discharged by Member States or the regional authorities, given their knowledge of the realities of the industry and their geographical closeness to it;

43. Stresses that the Commission's room for manoeuvre under the CFP is enormous, but this should nonetheless not be a reason for preventing all those involved in the management of fisheries from contributing. This particularly applies to the expertise of fishermen and their organizations, already highly qualified to collaborate and to share responsibilities which should not remain exclusively centralized in Brussels, a state of affairs which the Commission should continue to enhance still further;

44. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council, and to the governments, parliaments and fisheries organizations of the Member States.