The Commission presents its annual report on Member States' efforts during 2008 to achieve a sustainable
balance between fishing capacity and fishing opportunities. Member States are required1 to submit to the Commission, before 1
May each year, a report on their efforts during the previous year to achieve
a sustainable balance between fleet capacity and available fishing
opportunities.
On the basis of these reports and the data in the EU fishing fleet
register, the Commission produced a summary for 2008, and presented it to the
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) and to the
Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture. This year, only nine Member States
submitted their reports on time, while the other reports were between one and
twelve weeks late. Despite these delays, the Commission presented the summary
report to the above-mentioned committees. This report sums up Member States’
descriptions of their fishing fleets, the impact of the existing schemes to
reduce fishing effort and Member States’ compliance with the entry/exit
scheme.
Results for the mainland fleet except for vessels registered in
the outermost regions: according
to the CFR, during the six-year period from 2003 to 2008:
- the overall capacity of the EU fleet was reduced by approximately
331 000 GT and 1 123 000 kW, leading to a net reduction of approximately
16% in terms of tonnage and 15% in terms of power. The total number of
vessels was reduced by approximately 12 400, i.e. 13.3%;
- the capacity of the 'EU-15 fleet' was reduced by 260 486 GT
and 989 984 kW, and the capacity of the 'EU-10 fleet'5 was reduced by 70
354 GT and 132 980 kW in relation to its capacity on accession (1 May
2004). In relative terms, the reduction of the 'EU-10 fleet' since the
date of accession has been greater than the reduction of the 'EU- 15
fleet' over the period 2003-2008 (24% compared with 14%, in terms of
engine power). Romania and Bulgaria have withdrawn around 5% of capacity
in terms of GT and less than approximately 224 590 GT and 733 119 kW were
withdrawn from the EU fleet (except for the outermost regions) with
public aid, of which 25 657 GT and 89 024 kW were withdrawn in 2008;
- generally speaking, the net reductions in the EU fleet still
appear insufficient, considering the steady technological improvements
that neutralise the effects of capacity reduction and given the poor
state of most EU fisheries.
Results for the fleets registered in the outermost regions: the capacity of the fleet registered in
the outermost regions of Spain and Portugal has been significantly reduced,
in terms of both tonnage and power. In the same period the capacity of the
fleet in the French overseas departments has increased, with 343 new vessels
entering the fleet. At the end of 2008, the reference levels in the case of
demersal and pelagic segments under 12m were very slightly exceeded in
Réunion and in French Guyana.
The main
conclusions of the report are as follows :
- the quality of Member States’ reports in 2008 showed an
improvement relative to those for 2007. However, the majority of the
reports did not describe the Member States' fleets in relation to
fisheries in a manner that enabled the Commission to analyse the efforts
made to achieve a balance between the capacity of the fishing fleet and
the available fishing opportunities. Further reports of this kind are
likely to be more conclusive about the Member States' endeavours to
strike a better balance between fleet capacity and fishing opportunities
if all Member States make use of the indicators proposed in the
guidelines;
- it is hard to establish clear links between effort management
measures and fleet capacity adjustments, or to obtain a critical
analysis of the trends in terms of real effort deployed. Generally
speaking, the impact of fishing effort adjustment measures on fleet
capacity seems to be limited. As in previous years, the main driver of
fleet capacity reduction appears to be a combination of poor economic
performance of the fleet and the availability of EU or national funds.
This may be due, in part, to the absence of effort management systems
for several fisheries, but also to the limited effect of the existing
schemes. It appears that the use of individual transferable rights has
contributed to reducing capacity in some countries;
- in response to the fuel crisis of 2008, the Council adopted
temporary and specific measures for the restructuring of the EU fishing
fleet in July 2008, thus providing an opportunity to achieve the
necessary restructuring of the fleet. The effect of those measures has so
far been very limited, since - at the time of drafting of this report -
the Fleet Adjustment Plans laid down in the Regulation had not yet been
implemented. Exits from the fleet with public support in 2008 were below
those of 2007;
- during 2008 the fishing capacity of the EU fleet fell at an
average annual rate of 2.6% in terms of tonnage and 2.3% in terms of
power. This has been the overall trend for the last 17 years, although
it is not a trend in all Member States;
- the scientific assessment tells us that 30% of the stocks
for which data are available are fished outside safe biological limits,
and 80% are fished at levels above the Maximum Sustainable Yield. At the
same time, for large parts of the fleet, capacity is under-utilised,
i.e. the number of fishing days is less than the maximum possible.
In the light of these considerations, the capacity reductions
achieved appear to be insufficient to strike a sustainable balance between
capacity and fishing opportunities in the short term, especially if technological
progress, which is deemed to be of the same order of magnitude as the
observed capacity reductions, is taken into account.
As the Green
Paper on the Reform of the CFP points out, fleet overcapacity remains one of
the fundamental problems of the CFP. European fleets continue to be too large
for the resources available and this imbalance is at the root of many
problems related to poor economic performance, weak enforcement and
overexploited resources.