MARINET is the Marine Network of Friends of the Earth, England Wales and N. Ireland, and is part of the voluntary arm of Friends of the Earth.  Membership is open to everyone, and we have a website where our work is recorded www.marinet.org.uk

            Commercial fish stocks and marine biodiversity in European seas throughout the North East Atlantic, Baltic Sea, and Mediterranean Sea are now in a very poor condition, and this is largely due to unsustainable fishing practices over a long period of time.  Nearly 90% of all commercial fish stocks are over-fished in European seas, and a third of these stocks are now facing commercial extinction.

            These dangerous fishing practices, currently managed by the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) must cease and be fundamentally reformed.  If this fails to happen, most common commercial fish species (e.g. cod, tuna, haddock, herring) will become extinct, and the marine ecosystem which has supported these fish stocks will collapse and never return.  This is not alarmism.  This is precisely what has happened in the North West Atlantic where the once largest cod fishery in the world off Canada and the United States collapsed and is now extinct.  Over ten years have passed since the stocks collapsed there and the fishery was closed in a attempt to rebuild it.  All attempts to do so have failed. Over-fishing has destroyed the old ecosystem, and the fishery is now extinct.

           This must not happen in the North East Atlantic, and the Baltic and Mediterranean Sea.

The CFP Reform Campaign.

            The European Commission has recognised that Reform of the CFP is now essential, and is committed to a new policy and range of fishing management practices by 2012.

            However, the question is : does the European Commission really know what it is doing and does it know how to deliver this fundamental reform ?  The Commission has been down this road several times before, and failed very badly.

            Therefore MARINET is developing and leading a Campaign for the Reform of the CFP which this time will result in and guarantee the implementation of policies which will rebuild and protect European commercial fish stocks.

            We are asking all MARINET members and supporters and all Friends of the Earth organisations in the UK and Europe, both at national level and at local level, to work with us to secure this fundamental and urgently needed Reform of the CFP.  To join and link in with our strategy, simply contact us :  stephen.marinet@btinternet.com 

How We Reform the Common Fisheries Policy:

            There are a number of key components in the strategy which will secure and guarantee fundamental Reform of the CFP.

            We are in the process of developing these components, and it is your help in the development and delivery of these components that we are asking for and would welcome.

            These strategic components are:

●    Up until now, the design of the EU Common Fisheries Policy has been controlled solely by the Council of Ministers at meetings in Brussels.  The European Parliament and its MEPs have had no say or part in the design of the CFP.  However, the Lisbon Treaty of 2009 has changed that.  The European Parliament and its MEPs are now a partner with the Council of Ministers in the design of the CFP.

        Therefore this time around MEPs from every EU country have a right to decide what the policies of the new CFP will be.  Our Campaign will be asking you to contact your MEPs to gain their support and their vote for our Reform policies.

●    Our Reform policies for the new CFP are based on the requirement that there is a clear written commitment by the new Common Fisheries Policy that it will implement the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and thus implement EU law.

       The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires all member countries to ensure that all commercial fish stocks, and all marine food webs which support them, are in a sound and healthy condition by 2020.

       Therefore if the Reform of the CFP obeys EU law (i.e. the MSFD) the new CFP will be legally obligated to implement new policies which will restore all commercial fish stocks to a sound and healthy condition by 2020.

       As a result, our CFP Reform Campaign and our message to the European Parliament, MEPs and Ministers is that the new Common Fisheries Policy must observe the primacy of law.  In other words, it will be illegal to create a new CFP which does not implement the legal obligations of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

●    We are asking leading academics in marine conservation to assemble the scientific evidence which supports the case for immediate and fundamental reform of the CFP.

        When we have assembled the scientific evidence, in a manner similar to the way the UN Panel on Climate Change has done, then this scientific and evidence base will inform and drive politicians to make the correct decisions.

        Therefore we are in discussion with leading academics to create a virtual website-based international symposium, known as a Seaposium, which will record in full the scientific evidence and thus the need for fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.

        This website-based Seaposium will be created by us but will be entirely run and moderated by academics.  Its scientific credentials will therefore be impeccable and of the very highest reputation.

●    Using the above components in our CFP Reform strategy we will, if necessary, mount a legal challenge to the design of the new Common Fisheries Policy if it does not recognise the primacy of EU law (i.e. implement the legal obligations of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive).

       This will mean taking our CFP Reform case to the European Court of Justice in order to require decision-makers in the Council of Ministers, Parliament and Commission to design and implement a new Common Fisheries Policy which will rebuild and thereafter maintain all commercial fish stocks in a sound and healthy condition.  The Environmental Law Foundation has agreed to support us.

Published by MARINET, July 2010.