Fisheries in Community waters are managed under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The CFP was born in 1983 and suffered a significant review in 2002. This resulted in an increased emphasis on the reduction of the environmental impacts of fisheries, but by 2007 the CFP was still widely regarded as a failure.

The European Court of Auditors published a damning report highlighting the lack of control and compliance with the policy, whereas the European Commission’s paper “Reflections on the Common Fisheries Policy” pointed to “a lack of political will on the part of the Council to override national interests” as being largely responsible for “the failure to prevent the depletion of major fish stocks, increasing instability within the industry and continued damage to the marine environment.”

Indeed, the overexploitation of resources (with 88% of European stocks overfished and 30% outside biological limits), an unprofitable and subsidy-dependent sector, and decreasing levels of employment show that the policy has failed to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability. In addition to that, the current CFP is complex to administer, difficult to enforce, and much too costly in relation to the economic gains generated by the sector.

Recognising the urgency of the matter, Commissioner Joe Borg decided to launch a process aimed at completely overhauling the Common Fisheries Policy 3 years in advance of its scheduled decennial review. The Green Paper published by the Commission in April 2009 identified 5 main causes for these failures: the overcapacity of the EU fleet, imprecise policy objectives with no clear hierarchy among them, a decision-making system that favours short-term considerations, the lack of responsibilisation of the industry, and the lack of political will to enforce the policy, allied to the poor compliance by the industry.

The review process provides the opportunity to address the causes of the current problems and improve the framework of European fisheries policies. In 2009 Seas At Risk actively participated in that process and co-founded the NGO coalition OCEAN2012, which aims at a reformed CFP which stops overfishing, ends destructive fishing practices and delivers fair and equitable use of healthy fish stocks.

Commission's Green Paper on the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy

"Reflections on the Common Fisheries Policy": A Report to the General Directorate for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs of the European Commission (July 2007).

Court of Auditors' report

Seas At Risk contribution to the Commission's consultation on the reform of the CFP

Towards sustainable European fisheries: The double goal of restructuring and reducing the fishing fleet. (Background conference paper, abstracts and conference proceedings)

Executive summary of Low Impact Fisheries report

OCEAN2012 Website