Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-01-30-Speech-3-294"
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"en.20080130.23.3-294"2
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"Madam President, first of all I would like to thank Members for their interesting comments, which demonstrate once again that we share the common objective of eliminating this appalling practice.
I would also like to point out that, according to FAO estimates, discards within Community waters are around one million tonnes. Worldwide they are around eight million tonnes. These are very conservative estimates. When one takes into consideration that the system that we operate is producing less than one tenth of all discards – taking into account the TACs and quotas – I think that there are various other factors which contribute to discarding apart from the system operated by the common fisheries policy.
Having said that, we are actively seeking ways and means whereby we improve the management so that the TACs and quotas operate in a way whereby discards are reduced to an absolute minimum or are completely banned.
Finally, on the point raised concerning Mauritania, I would like to say that we have just signed a new memorandum of understanding with Mauritania, and this will lead to a new protocol which will guarantee for Mauritania the same amount that they have under the existing protocol but which will reflect the actual fishing possibilities in a more realistic way.
So we will be paying Mauritania to help it strengthen its fisheries infrastructure and its economy in general under the development funds, so that, in that way, Mauritania is guaranteed the full amount. But at least what we pay for fish would reflect the actual amount of fish that it is possible to catch in Mauritanian waters.
As I stated before, our proposal will be gradual but effective. Realistically speaking, we simply cannot bring about a discard ban overnight. However, as one speaker said, doing nothing is not an option. And, undoubtedly, during the course of this year we will be coming up, hopefully, with three legislative proposals on reducing discards for specific fisheries, apart from incentivising and encouraging Member States to come up with pilot projects, by virtue of which we could achieve the introduction of a reduction in discards or even, possibly, discard bans.
The example of Scotland, which was adopted by the Council in December, was a very laudable one.
Concerning the point that was made on positive incentives, I agree that these are important, but we need to find the right mix and the right levels, because otherwise they could be counterproductive, and we could end up with a situation whereby we encourage more catches when, for sustainability reasons, we would want to reduce them in order to reach MSY levels.
I would also like to point out that I could not agree more that our proposals must be tailor-made to the specific fisheries and must contain in-built incentives, as I said, and support for the changes in behaviour that fishermen will have to adopt.
Indeed, already, in our TAC and Quota Regulation, we adopted incentives for fishermen to adopt more selective methods, thus avoiding discards.
In the very first intervention and in others that followed, the point was made that discards are caused by the common fisheries policy. I would like to state that this is not really correct, because the causes of discards can arise form the high grading of fish by fishermen for the purpose of getting better quality fish, which is done independently of quotas, and the catching of juveniles, which is also independent of quotas. It is only where there is exceeding of catch quotas, and again this depends, because if it is a clean fishery and the quota is exceeded, then the quota is set for purposes of sustainability.
It is, in reality, where you have a mixed catch, and you have one of the types of catch which has a low quota for sustainability reasons, and the other catches targeted, that you have discarding of fish as a result of the TAC and Quota Regulations.
These are the aspects which we would like to address in order to introduce more selective gear, so that the catches can become even cleaner – which is one of the methods whereby discarding could be effectively reduced."@en1
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