Balticsea 2020

Fishery: Historical voting when the EU voted for a new fishery management

Wednesday, February 6, the Parliament voted on a new EU regulation for fishing. With an overwhelming majority (502 in favor and 137 against) the Parliament showed that they support a reform that will strive to rebuild fish stocks, rationalizing the management of fisheries so that the fish are no longer returned to the sea (discard ban), regionalize the management so that Ministers of the EU limit their decision to the overall goals and leave the detail management to member countries and regions.

These changes make it possible to simplify the regulatory framework for the fishing industry and provide greater freedom to the industry to design their own activities. A weakness in the proposal that is now voted through is that it contains a very weak governance to reduce overcapacity of fishing boats in the EU. Overcapacity leads to a small catch per fishing boat, leading to low profitability and high pressure on the politicians to decide high fishing quotas. Wednesday's vote was historic as it was the first time that the EU Parliament legislated in accordance with the Treaty of Lisbon.