Joe Borg stresses need for common EU fisheries policy

Dr Joe Borg, E.U. Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, said yesterday that there was as yet no common fisheries policy for the Mediterranean.

Although Mediterranean countries had continuously resisted restrictions on catches, the need was now being felt for a common fisheries policy because of dwindling fish stocks and the need to have a long-term strategy for sustainable fishing.

There was an overall need for more rigorous enforcement and control in fishing which control did not, however, fall within the ambit of the EU but on EU member states, he said.

So far fishing in the Mediterranean has been controlled through the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the General Fisheries Council of the Mediterranean.

The EU Commission is proposing the setting up of a Regional Fisheries Council for the Mediterranean by next April. Three quarters of the council's members will be delegates representing fishing communities and the rest representing other stakeholders, including marine scientists.

By the end of the year the Commission is planning to have set up seven such councils dealing with the rest of the seas connected to EU member states.

Commissioner Borg was speaking to reporters about his new role at the EU during a news conference at the office of the European Commission in Ta' Xbiex.

He said that a common fisheries policy would have to be adopted across the Mediterranean to be effective and the EU would be using all its persuasive power to bring on board non-EU states.

The idea was to put together a recovery plan spread over a number of years that would establish how fishing was managed and how to regenerate stocks.

"This would have to be achieved by offering these countries the possibility of setting up joint ventures...

"The EU Fishing Fund for 2007 and 2013 is an instrument which will assist fishing communities. The Fishing Fund now no longer forms part of the Structural Fund, which means that cohesion areas which Malta forms part of will, together, be able to gain assistance to the tune of 75 per cent of the fund.

"The rest of the fund goes to non-cohesion areas," Dr Borg added.

This meant, he went on, that the funds would not be operated on a diminishing scale but would be given in equal sums along the years 2007 to 2013.

Dr Borg said that with the EU Commission would have to see what measures to adopt about the Black Sea when Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union in two years' time, not to mention the possible eventual accession of Turkey.

Asked whether he would face a conflict of interest if he were to propose measures that would restrict fishing by Maltese fishermen, Dr Borg said that probably the initial reaction would be one of opposition.

But the opposition would die down once the government and the fishing community come round to understand that the effect of these restrictions would be beneficial in the long run.

He noted that such measures are introduced gradually not to upset the social and economic balance in the community.