The European Commission will implement a fund to end overfishing. Among other measures, will introduce a system of penalty points for double-similar to that existing in the Code of Circulation, which will mean the loss of the fishing license of the boat and the loss of professional license of the captain of the fishing vessel.
"Europe has failed in its policy to control fishing. None of the 27 regulations have achieved their goal. The control system is outdated and inconsistent. There is an absence of a culture of compliance. The EC has no capacity to enforce the control measures taken. And all this threatens the economic viability of the sector "and to be blunt expressed Cesar Alonso, director of Policy Development and Coordination Directorate of Maritime and Fisheries of the EC.
"We have no choice but to create a culture of compliance in the fishing industry and the states, to adopt a regulation only with the same rules for everyone and a way of a penalty with a double system of penalty points, the boat and the captain, "added the Spanish official in Brussels, with more than 20 years of service in the EC.
The measure will be like with the driving license. Is started with 12 points and will lose depending on the severity of the sanctions. The most serious removed six points. Accumulate two involves the loss of fishing license and whether the boat is the same captain of the fishing defaulting, it would lose its license. "They earn lots of money and have a direct responsibility on what happens with fishing on board", should be justified.
The chaotic situation of fisheries in the waters of the European Union has meant that catches have declined by 30% in recent years. The actual capacity of the fishing fleet is well above that figure, which decreases each year. 80% of fish stocks are overexploited, 30% of the catch in Spain, the main fishing power of the Twenty-seven-are out of control, and 93% of catches of cod, are juveniles.
Disciplinary measures
The data come from the report who manages the European Commission to reform the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), whose objectives have been presented recently at the headquarters of the Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) based in Vigo, which opened its facility last July.
Among the disciplinary measures which the new regulation is to suspend or cancel all or part of the financial aid community, which in the case of certain countries including Spain serves to increase fishing capacity and hence the depletion of resources. "Spain is 440 million aid per year. The citizens should know that that figure is what it cost two hospitals or 44,000 scholarships of 1,000 euros, "pointed out to be, a Galician family of shipowners whose work raises blisters on his land.
"It is not possible for a 'pack' three cans of tuna wild, caught in the wild and therefore 'bio', is worth the same as a bag of potato chips" to request changes to reflect an industry that 'is found in the Neolithic. " The major structural weaknesses that must be changed, according to Brussels, are breaking some of the logic of the sector. For example, to 'catch up on what the minimum time "," not to pay anything for fish "," receive subsidies that are higher than the catch "or" leave the product in the auction and disengage, which makes up the price of 1,000% and they do not benefit. "
"We must convince them that can be won over fewer fish," says should be. As an example cited the case of the Balearic Islands, where the fishermen decided not to fish on Fridays: mullet rose from three to nine euros in a week. The tuna, which cost three euros, rose to 10, thanks to a reduced supply in the markets to reduce one day a week of intensive fishing.
A sample of the tsunami of irregularities, is the ruling of last December 24 the Court of Justice of the European Union (TEU) by the lack of control fishing in the Gulf of Cadiz. The EU condemned Spain for failing to adequately control fishing, the landing and marketing of undersized fish of the governed. The EU cited as one reason that only 53 of the 479 cases handled between 2000 and 2005 by the Government of Andalusia, the not reached the commercial food chain.
Following this ruling, Ecologists in Action requested the secretary general of the Sea, Juan Carlos Martin Fragueiro "not off the package." His department had assured only two weeks earlier that "measures of control and surveillance of fisheries in Spain are the vanguard of Europe '.
What
Of Spain cries out to heaven, but it is not an exception. All countries in breach of a coastal community or other regulations. That is why Brussels has decided to undertake the policy of stick and carrot only then, and left because of warm cloths.