There is much excitement in Westminster at the moment about Hugh
Fearnley-Whittingstall’s campaign to end ‘discards’ under the Common Fisheries Policy. DEFRA and non-governmental organisations estimate that perhaps as much as 60 per cent of a catch will be returned dead to the sea because the CFP’s
controversial quota system is based on the amount of fish caught.
DEFRA has been pressing the European Commission to reform the quota system for years. At last, they seem to have succeeded. The commission is due to announce in July that the quota system will now be based on the amount of fish landed in port. With that apparently comes a concession to reduce discards significantly. The change is a major success for the government’s European policy and for the increasingly well regarded fisheries minister, Richard Benyon.
However, some Conservative backbenchers will not stop there. Paul Goodman reports that 250 MPs have signed and debated an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to ‘vote against proposed reforms of the EU Common Fisheries Policy unless they implement an ecosystems-based approach to fisheries management.’
Zac Goldsmith, whose euroscepticism is as sincere as his environmentalism, is leading the charge to impose an ‘ecosystems-based approach’. He insists that the so-called ‘12-mile limit’ should be torn-up. He said:
‘If we reassert our control over those waters we will not only provide welcome relief for our smaller boats against the onslaught of the factory fishing vessels, but we will be able to establish an intelligent, ecosystem-based management system and ensure the health of our fisheries indefinitely.’
But it looks as though Goldsmith will be frustrated. As this leaked letter indicates, DEFRA has long been pushing for Goldsmith’s reform to encourage marine conservation; but the commission’s 2009 Green Paper did not mention the 12-mile limit. The government is still negotiating with European partners, but the French and Spanish are said to be unmoved because the status quo suits their large-scale fishing industries.
As the 12-mile limit is likely to remain largely unchanged and the government is very unlikely to discard its hard won concessions from the European Commission, there is potential here for another contretemps between the government and its backbenchers over the EU.
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