Yesterday, 23 March, 2020,the European Court of Auditors outlined their findings on Europe’s marine environment.
If you want to get a good idea of what happens when EU policies go wrong, have a look at fisheries and the marine environment policies.
Europe has a policy on the marine environment. We even have laws in place – the Marine Strategy Framework Directive – and targets to meet.
And, there is taxpayers money – €1 2233 million – to support it. Only 6% is used for conservation.
The report is worth reading.
Some things are improving.
Things are improving in the North East Atlantic for some stocks.
The Med is still a disaster. There overfishing and overcapacity are rampant, and marine protected areas are not working.
Sadly, the only concrete follow up from the Commission seems to be to publish some more papers and have some meetings with Member States.
I hope the fish and seas realise that Commission Communications really make a difference.
Slide Deck presented by ECA
Fishing has been totally mismanaged in the UK and the EU for years
The over capacity of large international fishing companies has replaced small scale community base fishing that is dependent on calm seas , therefore to sum extent regulated by the weather
All community fishing agreements were broken by large fishing concerns as these gentlemen’s agreements have no standing in law only social pressure in the costal fishing communities upheld these closed areas
Uk fish quota was bought up by large internationals after the EU and Uk government pressurised inshore fishers to decommission there vessels, vested interests had more control than the EU or UK government
At present there is a real problem with deprivation on the coast in the Uk with substance abuse a serious problem This in itself has a serious effect on the idea of sustainable fishing .
Large multinational fishing vessels overfish legally leaving very little for the small scale costal fishers to catch. This has happened with pulse fishing , factory fishing , scalloping and now with fly shooting