European Union politicians vote to stop bankrupting our oceans

Today the European Parliament's fisheries committee voted 13 to 10 in favour of the draft report on the Common Fisheries Policy Basic Regulation, the cornerstone of the Common Fisheries Policy reform package and the key to sustainable fisheries in the European Union.

It was a difficult vote but all of the five WWF key asks for the Common Fisheries Policy reform were voted through on:

• Maximum Sustainable Yield – above MSY (BMSY) by 2020
• Multi-annual Plans and a timeline for implementation in four years’ time
• Commitment to eliminate discards in European fisheries with binding timetable
• Regionalisation – cooperation amongst stakeholders within or between member states to agree on management measures for shared fisheries
• External dimension - with active European Union participation in international fisheries; European Union fleets shall only fish surplus stocks from 3rd countries; European Union fighting against illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

Roberto Ferrigno, the Common Fisheries Policy Project Coordinator at the WWF European Policy Office said: “WWF is incredibly happy that this key stage of the reform process to make the European Union fisheries policy more sustainable has been won, despite relentless opposition from certain individuals within the European Parliament’s fisheries committee who wanted to keep a status-quo. This is true progress and a complete victory for an amazing group of supportive members of the European Parliament - they know who they are - who worked around the clock to make this happen!”



“The Fisheries Committee has shown through this milestone vote that the European Parliament is listening to scientific advice and wants fish stocks to recover. WWF now calls on the rest of the members of the parliament to champion this position in the plenary vote in early 2013 and hold the line ahead of even more challenging negotiations with fisheries ministers at council level next year”.

WWF believes that the Common Fisheries Policy reform must lead by the end of 2013, to the adoption of a new regulatory framework for truly sustainable and economically viable fisheries across EU waters.