Positive and constructive the meeting held today by Cepesca and Europêche with Virginijus Sinkevicius
EUROPEAN UNION
Thursday, December 12, 2019, 03:30 (GMT + 9)
It exposes the need to take socio-economic issues into consideration in the negotiation of TACs and quotas, the importance of defending the fishing sector against Brexit, the vulnerable position of the EU within the RFOs, demands a better use of the EMFF and asks that the future objectives of Marine Protected Areas are realistic and applicable
Javier Garat, general secretary of Cepesca and president of the European fishing association Europêche, has described as “positive and constructive” the meeting that a delegation of Europêche has today with the new Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries of the European Union, Virginijus Sinkevicius, to share the problems and challenges facing the community fisheries sector, and transfer the proposals of the sector itself to address them.
Before the eminent celebration of the Council of Fisheries Ministers of the EU that will decide the TACs and quotas for the year 2020, Garat has indicated to the Commissioner that the trend in relation to the achievement of the Maximum Sustainable Performance (RMS) of the different fish stocks To date it has been positive, after huge sacrifices of the sector. For this reason, he has been asked to take into account the socio-economic impact reports submitted by the Member States and the different ranges of quotas offered by scientists to achieve the objective of the RMS. Likewise, the Europêche delegation has expressed the importance of Brexit and the possible consequences for the fishing sector.
IUU fishing in the majority of cases is related to large pelagians (tunas) and bottom longliners (Photo: FAO)
Among the issues discussed were climate change, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) 2021-2027 and the landing obligation
In a final recap, Garat has transferred to the new commissioner the need to eliminate commercial preferences for species from countries related to IUU fishing and commit serious labor abuse; improve traceability criteria and access to imports in the EU market; expand information to consumers about seafood products and their origin, and pay more attention to communication about the benefits of fish consumption for survival and health, in addition to their low impact on the development of climate change.
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