An End to All Nighters
The all night fishing council meetings are becoming ever rarer.
There was an unhealthy and slightly macho pride in fishing ministers going onto the airways after having haggled for 48 hours non-stop to defend “look what i brought the boys back home, I stood up for our national interest”.
Cross-Dressing Charlatans
Now, I’ll readily admit politicians draped in the flag the easiest sign post for a charlatan. But, making important decisions with little or no sleep is pretty stupid. You would not expect a grown adult to go into talks fueled with several large whiskeys, although I have heard in certain countries this is still common. Sleep deprivation has similar effects on the body as getting lashed up.
Now, the idea that haggling over intricate details is most politicians strong point at any hour, let alone at 2 am, is silly.
All Nighters Alive And Well In Brussels
But, in Brussels, when the Parliament and Council can’t reach an agreement, they shut them away to force them to reach an agreement. The Commission joins the late night seances with the job of nudging them towards agreement.
A group of sleep deprived insomniacs are then expected to broker a deal. The results can be comic, with both sides not realizing the details they eventually signed off on.
CFP Subsidies Reform About to Run Aground?
Now, the last stage of the CFP, the subsidies EMFF package, is waiting for final agreement.
Agreement seems tortuously close. Grown men late at night are discussing whose going to pay for data collection!
The reality is if the Parliament does not seal the deal soon, they will run out of time to finalize a deal before April, and then they will return to their constituencies to ask to be job interviewed by their voters in the May election. If they don’t sort it out very soon, a new group of MEPs will need to start talks in October 2014.
Given that fisheries is in most EU countries a negative and substantial negative contributor to the national economy, the reform is going to rely on a lot of taxpayers cash – nicely known as subsidies – to pay for it. Without the flow of subsidies, a lot of the reform would not be able to be financed. But, also a lot of the industry would fold without the drip feed of subsidies.
Poltics is the art of compromise, and compromise is not aided by sleep deprivation and haggling over arcane points. If they can’t reach a deal very soon, they’ll inadvertedendly scupper parts of the CFP and many fishing boats.