CFP Reform? Not if They get Their Way!

[waterman1013]

Hi Guys

 

You should all read this and then get your pens out. We need to act now! Otherwise the rape of our seas and fish stocks will continue unabated.

 

Write to your MP, MEP and Franz Fischler to head off the attack from the "Friends of Fisheries"

 

You should all take note of this bad news regarding the future of our seas and fisheries from;

 

"Jan Kappel, Secretary-General, EAA

'European Anglers´ Alliance'

 

EAA Office:

82 Rue F. Pelletier

B-1030 Brussels

Belgium

 

Tel: +32 (0)2 732 0309

Fax: +32 (0)2 736 2858

E-mail : eaa.aepl@skynet.be

 

Dear all,

 

Commission did it again - postponed the new CFP several weeks!

 

(EU) EU/FISHERIES: Adoption of reform proposals postponed several weeks

Brussels, 23/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - After Monday's meeting of its chefs de cabinets, the European Commission decided to defer for "several weeks" the adoption (foreseen for Wednesday, already one week behind schedule) of the reform proposals for Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The chefs de cabinet suggested the Commission should postpone examination of this dossier until 28 May. The Commission spokesperson confirmed that José Maria Aznar telephoned to Romano Prodi last weekend mainly to discuss the reform project with him. It is a highly sensitive project, since it provides for an average reduction of 40% fishing effort and gradual abolition of public aid (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.10). According to El Pais, Mr Aznar, supported by the French, Portuguese and Italian governments and Italy, is opposed to the adoption of the proposals by Commissioner Franz Fischler in their current form. The proposals will be "discussed in coming weeks", said Mr Prod's spokesman, adding that the report "had nothing to do with the French elections", and that it was "necessary to work more on this dossier". He also implicitly admitted that the reform is far from unanimous at the Commission and said: "it is in everyone's interest that the matter be perfectly settled and that we should take the time it needs".

 

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Steffen Smidt, Director-General, DG Fisheries was sacked today by Romany Prodi today after pressure from Spain's Prime Minister, José Aznar, who is EU chairman for the time being (Spain hold the Presidency of the European Union for the first six months of 2002).

Spain is also the main responsible for stopping the CFP reform process, says RITZAU.

 

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Short analysis - CFP Delay and Steffen Schmidt out of office.

 

In my mind there is no doubt that the CFP reform delay and the sacking of the CFP reform architect (Danish) Steffen Smidt, Director-General, DG Fisheries is a result of a co-ordinated attack from the "Friends of Fisheries" group* to weaken and delay the reform process and thereby make it impossible for the Danish EU Presidency to finalise the CFP reform during the Danish Presidency period June-December this year. Instead - if the group succeeds in this diabolic strategy - the CFP reform has to be finalised under Greek Presidency next year. And then we will by no doubt NOT end up with a sustainable CFP as Greece is part of the "Friends of Fisheries", too.

 

* The "Friends of Fisheries" group: Spain, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal

(NB not to forget: President of the European Commission Romano Prodi is Italian)

 

NB: Bent Rulle, President of 'Danmarks Fiskeriforening' , (the Danish commercial fishermen!) says to Danish newspaper 'Berlingske Tidende' today concerning Steffen Smidt out of office:

 

"I am deeply shocked because I regard him as a very loyal civil servant. Now Danish fishermen have to pay the bill for other countries' fraud. That I find extremely negative, but I suppose Spain thinks differently. I fear, that countries which have broken the rules for years and intentionally over-fished the stocks are rewarded in a new fisheries agreement. This shows how rotten everything is and that you cannot have faith in the system anymore"

 

(my translation, JK)

 

Small MEMO on "Friends of Fisheries" group.

- by Jan Kappel, 11 February 2002

 

"Friends of Fisheries" is by no doubt the most threatening force against a reasonable outcome from the CFP negotiations. When EU fishery nations like Spain, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal do an input to the CFP process in common they mean business and they will be heard. No matter how you measure their "voice", their voice will be loud. To stress this I did a brief memo. The information is taken from the two reports attached as pdf files (in another email coming right after this) and I did some calculations as well.

In percentages Friends of Fisheries are out of EU 15:

 

Vessels 76,8, catches value 68,2, catches volume 45,1 and employment 59,6. In Denmark we got a now liberal-conservative government, - real fisheries friends! If we count Denmark to the other six Friends of Fisheries we get:

 

Vessels 81,5, catches value 75,8, catches volume 67,1 and employment 62,9

 

This is not promising:

"This contribution by the group of "Friends of Fisheries" differs on a number of points not only from the objectives defended by Commissioner Franz Fischler, but also from the positions defended by the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden or Austria, which are calling for radical reform of Blue Europe." Two more paragraphs (highlighted with purple) telling me that these countries have learned nothing but better speeches. They are truly Fishermen's Friends -and aquaculture´s as well. And I am sceptical about this wording: "recognition of the multifunctional nature of fisheries by responding to the concern for diversification, including in terms of earnings (e.g. development of "fisheries and tourism" activity)", but I need to see the original paper. I will try to get it. I didn't succeed on the internet but did send a request to one of my friends from the Parliament.

 

It is not only in terms of vessels and catches Friends of Fisheries are heavy. In the Council -the most important EU institution concerning the final CFP result- the six "Friends of Fisheries" countries are heavy, too:

 

Article 205 (ex Article 148)

1. Save as otherwise provided in this Treaty, the Council shall act by a majority of its

members.

2. Where the Council is required to act by a qualified majority, the votes of its members

shall be weighted as follows:

 

Belgium 5, Denmark 3, Germany 10, Greece 5, Spain 8, France 10, Ireland 3

Italy 10, Luxembourg 2, Netherlands 5, Austria 4, Portugal 5, Finland 3, Sweden 4, United Kingdom 10.

 

For their adoption, acts of the Council shall require at least:

- 62 votes in favour where this Treaty requires them to be adopted on a proposal from the Commission,

- 62 votes in favour, cast by at least 10 members, in other cases.

3. Abstentions by members present in person or represented shall not prevent the adoption by the Council of acts which require unanimity.

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I am not sure whether the proposals from the Commission shall be voted on by majority or by qualified majority (or a mix). We have to wait for the proposals I think. But it only takes 26 versus 44 votes to stop all or some of the Commission´s proposals for directives building up the new CFP. Friends of Fisheries have 41. With Denmark they have 44!

I think we need a letter campaign more than ever. Anglers are not wealthy, but many! This is our most powerful tool, I think.

 

Jan Kappel

 

Take some action now, please.

 

Mike Heylin

[Leon Roskilly]

There was a prophetic article in The Guardian Newspaper on April 19th:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journa...,687359,00.html

 

(There's plenty more articles about the state of our fish stocks etc at http://www.guardian.co.uk/fish )

 

The ‘Friends of the Fisheries Group’ seem to be bringing heavy pressure to bear, to wreck all that is good which is contained in the proposals for the CFP review, and are seemingly attempting to delay proceedings until Greece takes over the EU presidency, when they will have a much greater influence on events.

 

Today, this was issued by the EAA:

 

Dear all,

 

This letter was delivered to Commission President Romano Prodi and released to the press today (and distributed by hand into 626 MEP's mailboxes in the European Parliament).

 

Jan Kappel, Secretary-General, EAA

'European Anglers´ Alliance'

 

EAA Office:

82 Rue F. Pelletier

B-1030 Brussels

Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)2 732 0309

Fax: +32 (0)2 736 2858

E-mail : eaa.aepl@skynet.be

 

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OPEN LETTER

 

to the

President of the European Commission Romano Prodi

Brussels, 25 April 2002

 

Concerning the delay of the CFP reform and the removal of Steffen Smidt, Director-General, DG Fisheries

 

Dear Mr President,

 

We were shocked to learn of the telephone discussion between Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and yourself last weekend which resulted in the postponement of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). This was reported in the Agence Europe newsletter on Wednesday, 24 April, taken from the Spanish newspaper El Pais. We were further shocked to discover CFP architect, Steffen Smidt was removed from his post as Director-General of DG Fisheries on Tuesday evening on your direct orders as stated by the press bureau Ritzau.

 

From Agence Europe and El Pais we know that Mr Aznar, supported by the French, Portuguese Irish and Italian governments, is opposed to the adoption of the proposals by Commissioner Franz Fischler in their current form. Your spokesman said the proposals will be "discussed in coming weeks".

 

By your interference you make it difficult for the Danish Presidency to finalise the CFP reform during the second half of 2002 as planned. Instead Greece -member of “Friends of Fisheries” group- will have to deal with it during their EU Precedence first half of 2002. This is not promising! Millions of anglers, sport-fishers, the tackle industry and angling tourism sector and millions of common European citizens want changes now after having experienced the well known damages from more than 20 years with a non-sustainable and mis-managed European Fishery policy. By your latest actions, Mr President, you send us all the very poor signal, that our opinions and hopes for a better CFP don’t count at all if we are not in line with some minor group of members of the Council dubiously calling themselves “Friends of Fisheries”.

 

Last year, on the request of the Commission DG Fisheries, hundreds of stakeholders took part in last year’s CFP Green Paper consultations in the hope that this would change the European Fisheries policy for the better. But it seems like one telephone call from Spain is worth more than thousands of peoples hard work and commitment in this matter. So much for “bringing the Union closer to the Citizens”.

 

Another public consultation concerning the Commission’s EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE – A WHITE PAPER, ended three weeks ago. In this White Paper the Commission states (p.7): “The Union is built on the rule of law; it can draw on the Charter of fundamental rights, and it has a double democratic mandate through a Parliament representing EU citizens and a Council representing the elected governments of the Member States. Yet despite its achievements, many Europeans feel alienated from the Union’s work.(..)Finally, many people do not know the difference between the Institutions. They do not understand who takes the decisions that affect them and do not feel the Institutions act as an effective channel for their views and concerns.”

 

Dear Mr Prodi, the citizens are not to blame!

 

The EAA and EFTTA call for:

 an explanation of the President's conduct

 the Commission’s CFP proposals published now

 and the immediate reinstatement of Steffen Smidt to his position.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Harm Minekus, President of EAA Louis Tchertoff, President of EFTTA

 

Jan Kappel, Secretary General of EAA

EAA * 82 Rue F. Pelletier * B-1030 Brussels, Belgium

Tel: + 32 (0)2 732 0309 * Fax: + 32 (0)2 736 2858 * Mobile: + 32 0498/840523 * E-mail: eaa.aepl@skynet.be

 

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Please put pen to paper and support Jan and the EAA by contacting your own MEP as soon as possible.

 

You will find contact details of your MEP by starting at:

 

http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep5/owa/p_mep...g=EN&iorig=home

 

Tight Lines - Leon Roskilly

Sea Anglers' Conservation Network (SACN)

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/sacn/