Fishermen and fisheries leaders from all over the UK are willing the EU to come up with a radical and workable way forward in the wake of today's crucial Fisheries Council CFP meeting in Brussels.
LETTER FROM RICHARD BENYON:
We all know that the current Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is broken and no one wants to see it continue to erode the livelihoods of our fishermen and blight the marine environment. I am committed to going into this week’s important negotiations with a view to us achieving our objectives of sustainable fish stocks, a prosperous fishing industry and a healthy marine environment. We’ve come a long way since the detailed negotiations began in September 2011 and this week’s Fisheries Council provides a clear opportunity to continue pushing the reform in the direction we need. This will not be easy – the ambitions that I hold are not shared by all – but I will be working hard to deliver as much as I possibly can. We will continue to press for robust commitments to ensure we can eliminate discards quickly, reflecting the strength of feeling among the British public that we need to tackle this terrible waste. I’ve set out the objectives we are fighting for in these negotiations, but as one of 27 participants round the table I can’t pre-empt the outcome, but what I can do is make clear the UK will not shy away from these objectives and will continue to fight for a fairer deal for UK fishermen and the marine environment.
Richard Benyon UK Fisheries Minister
These days the focus of attention for the majority of Uk fishermen - ie those who would qualify for membership of the Under 10metres association NUTFA - has to be the derisory quota system that now operates in favour of the bigger vessels who are managed via their producer organisations - like the CFPO in the south west.
In the wake of the recent Fishermen's Friend event held in Plymouth last weekend, Jerry Percy, chief executive of the New Under Ten Fishermen's Association, admitted there had been concerns about teaming up with Greenpeace. But he said both sides had spent "30 years throwing stones at each other", which had got them nowhere.
Mr Percy said quotas had to "reward" those fishermen who "increased their sustainability and reduce their impact" and not be based on "historic rights". They had wrongly become "commodities to be bought and sold".
He said reform of the EU's CFP – which is due later this year – represented the "last chance" for change for decades.
Richard Lockhead is quoted saying, "Our fishermen and our fishing communities are counting on the next CFP to show common sense. They are counting on the Council to acknowledge the great work that is taking place to conserve fish stocks and increase sustainability. And they are counting on the support of the whole of Scotland as we continue to fight to protect their livelihoods and their communities.”
Full coverage of the events leading up to the meeting in yesterday's Guardian.