A statement from European civil society and conservation groups has said that they are concerned about the threat of delays or the possible collapse of negotiations on the EU fisheries reform.
This is following a meeting with Irish fisheries minister and chair of the EU fisheries Council, Simon Coveney.
BirdLife Europe, BirdWatch Ireland, Greenpeace, NEF the new economics foundation, Oceana, OCEAN2012 and WWF released a joint statement following the meeting on Tuesday, stating that countries including France, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Greece and Romania are resisting efforts to find common ground with the European Parliament on key issues such as fleet management and discards. The groups say that Mr Coveney must not give in to these short-sighted positions but instead re-double his efforts to win agreement with all fisheries ministers for an ambitious reform.
They says that the only issue where the Council is currently showing willingness to compromise with the Parliament is on the subject of stock recovery to levels that can support maximum sustainable yield.
They believe that a far-reaching reform of the Common Fisheries Policy will end four decades of overfishing and set the target to recover fish stocks by 2020, but warns that a breakdown of the fisheries reform negotiations under the Irish Presidency would play into the hands of those countries that want to continue overfishing and avoid new measures to recover fish stocks and rebuild a sustainable fishing sector.
The NGOs are urging ministers to settle on a compromise that includes a timeline for stock recovery, targeted measures to eliminate excess fishing capacity and the promotion of low-impact fishing.
Mercator Media Ltd 2013