Fish sector criticises EU chief over limited consultation

Irish fishing industry organisations have criticised the EU Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, because of the way she attempted to consult them on a review of the Common Fisheries Policy.

A nine-page questionnaire on the CFP review, sent out by the Fisheries Commissioner, has been dismissed here as "farcical" because of its detail and because organisations have been given a month to reply.

"This is just giving the illusion of participation," the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation said.

The highly detailed questionnaire was drawn up by the legal unit in the Commission's DGXIV, with a covering letter from Ms Bonino.

In it, she says the review, to be completed by December 31st, 2002, will not be confined to specific legal aspects of the policy, but will be "a wide-ranging reflection on improvement of all aspects of the CFP to enable it to cope with the challenges facing it".

"The intention is to engender an open and constructive debate with all parties with an interest in fisheries in the EU at whatever stage or level," the Commissioner says.

"Involvement of all operators in the fishery sector is the key element of the exercise that the Commission wishes to pursue."

The attached questionnaire represents "the first stage in this reflection exercise".

The questionnaire runs through a general assessment of the CFP, access to waters and internal resources, resource management and conservation, international co-operation and fishery agreements, the market, rationalisation and support measures and a section entitled "horizontal matters", which relates to monitoring, control and the relationship between fishermen and scientists.

Giving tomorrow as the closing date, the Commissioner says parties can discuss the CFP after 2002 in greater depth at meetings to be organised by the Commission in all member-states from September.

Mr Donal O'Driscoll, chairman of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation, said this was not what the Commissioner had promised when she met Irish industry representatives in Dublin in September 1996.

"She promised that her officials would come and talk to people at grassroots level," Mr O'Driscoll said. "If she is going back on this promise, we will be very disappointed."

Mr Joey Murrin, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, said this was part of a trend.

An ad-hoc working group attached to the advisory committee on fisheries had been formed in Brussels, with little or no consultation, he said.

The questionnaire was another illustration of this.

A spokeswoman for the EU Commissioner said the questionnaire was only the first approach, and direct meetings would be held in each member-state between DGXIV and industry organisations.

Some 300 copies of the questionnaire had been sent out throughout the Community, she said.

The list of 34 organisations, coops and associations sent the questionnaire in Ireland was provided by the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources on request, "without adjudication".

At least seven of the organisations have no fax, and will be hard put to meet tomorrow's deadline.

The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, recently confirmed he would set up a task force on CFP review to prepare Ireland's case.

This would involve "all the key players, including the industry", he said. He also added that he had won the EU Commission's agreement to begin its round of consultations here, with a series of meetings with the industry in September.

The Marine Institute is funding three projects under the EU-funded marine research measure which will produce valuable information to back up Ireland's case.

The projects include an assessment of midwater fish stocks, an analysis of discards by the whitefish fleet, and a socio-economic evaluation of the impact of fisheries and aquaculutre in four coastal counties.

The Irish Fish Producers' Organisation has welcomed the exclusion of sea fisheries from the Strand Two Annex of the Northern Ireland Agreement.

Inland fisheries, aquaculture and "other marine matters" are referred to as areas for cross-Border co-operation, but there is no specific reference to sea fishing.

The IFPO chief executive, Mr Mark Lochrin, said the exclusion made "absolute good sense".

Obviously the settlement allowed scope for co-operation at a later stage, he added.

Under an agreement known as voisinage, reciprocal rights have been agreed between Northern Irish and the Republic's fishing fleets. But a row over boardings of Northern vessels by the naval patrol ship, LE Emer, recently reflects tensions over dwindling quotas in the Irish Sea.