MEPs on the European Parliament’s fisheries committee have again delayed a vote on a controversial proposal to phase out trawling of the seabed for deep sea fish in the north east Atlantic.
The vote, which has been delayed several times since March, was supposed to be held today (17 October).
The European Commission proposed a stricter licensing system for deep-sea fishing in July 2012. Licenses for vessels that use certain types of uneconomical deep-sea fishing equipment (bottom trawls and bottom-set gillnets) would be phased out and banned under the proposal, from two years after the regulation enters force.
The small but influential deep-sea fleet has complained that the law would unfairly penalise certain fishing methods for no justifiable reason. They say it is based on inaccurate impact assessments. Deep sea fishing accounts for 1% of fishing in EU waters, mostly in Portuguese and Spanish waters.
Centre-left Greek MEP Kriton Arsenis, who is guiding the legislation through the Parliament, says the phase-out is necessary to protect coral reefs at the bottom of the sea that are essential to biodiversity. But other MEPs on the committee delayed earlier attempts to vote on his report after they filed complaints about a hearing that Arsenis held in February. They alleged that the hearing was one-sided and did not take the views of the sector into account. A second hearing was held in July with the fishing sector present.
The vote has been rescheduled for 4 November. But Parliament sources suspect several Spanish, Portuguese and Scottish MEPs on the committee are pursuing a deliberate tactic of delay in order to make sure the legislation is not adopted before the end of this Parliament.
Separately, the full Parliament will vote on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) in Strasbourg on Wednesday (23 October). The fund is designed to help achieve the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in 2014-20. Controversially, the fisheries committee voted in July to re-introduce EU aid for vessel construction, which was banned in 2002. Campaigners hope this will be overturned in the plenary.
2013 European Voice