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Tourism is undoubtedly an economic backbone of coastal regions. At present about 2.36 million people are employed in the coastal tourism sector, representing 1.1% total EU employment.

Today the European Commission published its report on progress achieved in the Common Fisheries Policy over the last few years and its suggestions for fishing opportunities in EU waters in 2012....

Speech by Commissioner Damanaki at the press conference, BERL Press Room, Brussels

Speech by Commissioner Damanaki at the meeting on Common Fisheries Policy at the EC Representation in Berlin, Germany

The European Commission wants to eradicate the practice of shark finning completely from EU waters and fishing vessels from the EU wherever they operate in the world. Finning consists of cutting off and keeping the fins of sharks while throwing the shark body overboard to die.

The Commission has launched a consultation to explore the way that the integrated maritime policy could be implemented in the Atlantic Ocean sea basin. Closing date: 15/10/2010.
Seabirds often lead fishermen to productive fishing grounds; in return, they can often take advantage of the fishermen's operations ...

On May 2 and 3 over 230 people with an interest in fisheries (from Member State administrations, RACs and ACFA, industry, NGO's, members of the European Parliament or representatives of the main EU institutions) gathered in La Coruna, Spain, to take part in a broad stakeholders’ conference discussing some of the main pillars of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.

Speech by Commissioner Joe Borg at the launch of the CFP reform consultation in France, Paris, 5 October 2009
Speech by Commissioner Joe Borg at the German Bundestag AGRI Committee, Berlin, 17 June 2009
Today the European Commission presented its views on how to set fishing possibilities in EU waters for 2010. A consultation document sets out the approach the Commission intends to take when setting the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and the fishing effort limitations for the coming year.
Today, the European Commission adopted a Green Paper on the future of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy. The paper analyses the shortcomings of the current Policy and launches a broad public consultation on how these shortcomings should be tackled.
Speech by Commissioner Joe Borg at the press conference: Speaking points, Brussels, 22 April 2009

Rights-based management tools in fisheries

Public consultation

In 2007, the European Commission launched a public debate on rights-based management tools in fisheries. The debate is still ongoing even though the formal consultation is closed.

Background

Rights-based management includes any system of allocating individual fishing rights to fishermen, fishing vessels, enterprises, cooperatives or fishing communities. Such systems, which exist in all fisheries management regimes in one form or another, basically define the rights to use fisheries resources. Fishing rights have a value and can be traded. The trade in fishing rights was first addressed in the context of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy in 2002, when the Commission committed itself to producing a report on the scope for provisions within EU and/or national fisheries management systems for a system of tradable fishing rights, which can be individual or collective.

Markets in fishing rights exist in most Member States. In some, national regimes specify that days at sea or part of the catch quota can be sold or leased. In others, those who wish to acquire more fishing rights have to buy a fishing vessel. The degree of transparency or openness of these transactions may vary greatly depending on how the system is formalised. Even when they are not specified by national law, in most Member States such markets exist de facto. The cost of acquiring these rights is at times substantial and can have a major effect on the development of the fisheries sector. The debate on rights-based management should explore ways to facilitate greater transparency, improve legal certainty and security, and ultimately achieve greater economic efficiency for fishermen, which will also mean minimising costs to the rest of society.

The debate also needs to address the potential negative effects of such systems - such as the risk that rights are concentrated in the hands of a few large companies to the detriment of small coastal fishing communities - and the way they could be addressed.

Consultation documents

Communication on rights-based management tools in fisheries

Staff working paper pdf - 326 KB [326 KB]

Press release (26/02/2007)  

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