Glossary:Common fisheries policy (CFP)
The Common fisheries policy, abbreviated as CFP, is the European Union (EU) policy for managing the fisheries in the waters of Member States. Its objectives are:
- increasing productivity;
- stabilizing markets;
- ensuring security of supply and reasonable prices to the consumer.
Although a common fisheries policy was already provided for in the Treaty of Rome in 1957, it did not become a common policy in the full sense of the term until 1983. The CFP has the same legal basis (Articles 32-38 of the EC Treaty) as the Common agricultural policy and shares the same aims mentioned above. Like the CAP, the CFP is a shared responsibility of the European Union and its Member States.
Successive reforms have added new aims to the initial goals of the CFP:
- sustainable exploitation of resources;
- protection of the environment;
- safeguards for a high level of human health protection;
- contributing to economic and social cohesion.
Protection of fish stocks and the marine environment especially is a key issue, given the threat posed by resource depletion.