Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki. (Photo: EC/NOAA/FIS)

EU reaches 'pitiful' compromise on tuna position

EUROPEAN UNION
Friday, November 19, 2010, 22:30 (GMT + 9)

The tug-of-war between Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, with last-stand support from three member states, and some dominating fishing powers in the Council, including France and Spain, over the EU position on the threatened bluefin tuna ended in a forced compromise that outraged environmentalists described as to “board a plane with only a 60-77 per cent chance of arriving in one piece”. 

In its press release, the Council said that it “unanimously agreed on a text indicating that for 2010, the bluefin tuna Total Allowable Catches (TACs) should stay in line with the ICCAT scientific advice in order to ensure the long term recovery of the bluefin tuna stock."

What the Council failed to mention is that the TACs in the compromise decision finally reached on 17 November would imply only a 60-77 per cent chance to reach Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), a term for scientifically sound recruitment, by 2022.

Furthermore, according to a UN agreement in Johannesburg in 2002, this goal should be reached already by 2015. Another agreement reached within the UN framework in Nagoya, Japan, as late as last month, sets up 2020 as the year by which “overfishing” should be stopped.

At the formal core of the recent face-off between Damanaki and some of the dominating fishing powers has been the EU position at the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), expected to agree the future management of the severely threatened Atlantic bluefin tuna stock, which takes place in Paris on 17-27 November.

The Commission, represented by Fisheries Commissioner, will speak for the European Union, and under normal circumstances the fisheries ministers would gave given her that mandate with little further ado at their Council meeting on 25 October after just letting her hear their opinions.

This time, however, Damanaki, snubbed by the Council, was sent back to later present a formal proposal that would be dealt with in Council sub-assemblies.

Sweden, the UK and Germany had sided with the Commissioner, while France, Italy and Greece mustered enough support from other member nations to end up with this non-decision.

Making it clear that she would make sure to have the full weight of the whole Commission behind her when she returned, Damanaki said that she would first present her proposal to that body, and to have it formally adopted there.

On Tuesday 9 November she presented the Commission proposal, to be discussed and possibly adopted on the following Friday by COREPER, an assembly consisting of the member nations’ deputy EU ambassadors.

While Damanaki as late as last month called for a “significant reduction” in bluefin tuna catches, the new proposal only mentions “a reduction of the total allowable catches [TACs] of bluefin tuna based on science”, mentioning no figures.

COREPER failed to reach accord on that Friday, and negotiations continued all through the following Wednesday, when the member state representatives finally agreed on a compromise launched by the Belgian Presidency.

In the final vote, according to sources, only The Netherlands, Sweden and Greece abstained, with the UK, Germany, Denmark and Austria in the end withdrawing their opposition. France, Spain, Italy and Malta were leading the opposition even to Damanaki’s new played-down proposal.

Greenpeace EU oceans policy director Saskia Richartz. (Photo: Greenpeace)

“This demonstrates the pitiful state of the EU’s fisheries rules in general”, commented Greenpeace EU oceans policy director Saskia Richartz.

“Would you board a plane with only a 60-77 percent chance of arriving in one piece? The EU is gambling away the future of a valuable fish resource. It is ignoring scientific advice, EU rules on marine protection and advice from two commissioners, including the EU's chief fisheries official Maria Damanaki, who has called for substantial reduction in the tuna quota”.

ClientEarth, a group of environment lawyers, noted in a statement that “the position the European Council is reported to have adopted breaches EU legal obligations to protect bluefin tuna”, adding that it “also risks severely undermining provisions of EU environmental legislation and will disastrously fail to protect the species.”

“EU law demands that all fish stocks are at sustainable levels by 2020. The Council's position means that the EU is now asking ICCAT to secure only a 30-45 per cent likelihood that bluefin tuna will recover by 2020. This is illegal under EU law”, ClientEarth said.

Source: The Fisheries Secretariat (FISH)

Related article:

- European nations agree on ambiguous position for bluefin tuna

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