Hard battle in recent days, between the deputies of the Pech Commission of the EU Parliament and the Commission, who presented an Action Plan to eliminate, between now and 2030, bottom trawling and every instrument that operates on the seabed.
The deputies of France and the Netherlands have raised the possibility of not implementing any sanctions, while DG Envi has cut it short by referring the decision to the EU Court of Justice. On 20 March, the question will go to the EU Council for the first time to return, for the definitive ok, at the end of July.
In the meantime, Europe's organizations, trade unions, and cooperatives have drafted and signed a document addressed to their ministers to stop what they define as an "infamous initiative" by the EU Commission.
AGRICOLAE asked Rosanna Conte, a member of the PECH Commission with a Lega share, what is happening between the EU Commission and the European Parliament on the sustainable fishing package presented by Brussels.
“This package contains several critical points,” she explains. "On one hand, Marine Protected Areas are expanding, which will have to cover at least a third of our seas. On the other, with the Action Plan, the progressive stop in these areas of all activities that use bottom trawling is envisaged, which will be completely banned by 2030. This is unacceptable. We are talking about a sector that in Europe contributes 25% to total landings of fish products and 38% of revenues, with 7,000 boats. Of these, 2,088 are Italian ( the most important sector of our fleet): companies that land 33% of the national fish product for a value equal to 46% of the total turnover, and which supply most of what is sold in our markets. Furthermore, the scientific assumptions of Piano are questionable, and artfully chosen to support an entirely ideological paradigm".
Which paradigm?
"The one that, to protect our seas, it is necessary to cancel our fishermen. It is a paradigm largely denied by the facts: the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of the sector can and must go hand in hand. I remind you that the European fishing sector has been engaged for many years in a tiring process of adaptation to constantly evolving EU standards and for the achievement of the objectives of the common policy. This commitment is bearing fruit: the Mediterranean, for example, is registering the first recovery results of some stocks", he reiterates With you. "And what is the European Commission doing? Instead of rewarding these efforts, it is trying to scuttle a strategic sector with a quick clean-up. This is counterproductive madness because without bottom trawling, the share of fish that Europe imports from third countries where fishing does not observe the same rules as ours in matters of the environment, safety, and labour. In other words, companies that operate with the highest sustainability standards in the world are forced to close down, to promote overfishing and pollution in other parts of the world. So much for the fight for the climate and the good of the planet".
So what does he propose?
"What needs to be done is to radically review the very concept of phasing out of trawling, one of the main and essential sectors for the supply of high-quality foods on our markets. The action of the Common Policy on trawling, through technical and management, now has decades of history and has achieved significant results. This long and tiring journey cannot be abruptly interrupted with a tender which would cause a productive, economic and social disaster, and which would only give more space to non-EU fleets to satisfy the European demand", continues the MEP.
Is your position shared in the European Parliament?
"In the Fishing Committee, where I have been the group leader of Identity and Democracy for years, I must say that there is broad consensus with my colleagues. I must also add that in recent years the dialogue carried out with the European Commission's DG Mare has been positive and we have made it possible to achieve important results for the sector", he explains.
"The problem is the attitude of the EU executive DG Environment. An attitude of total closure towards the instances of Parliament and more generally of trade associations. The hearing in the Fisheries commission of Veronica Manfredi of the Environment DG was arrogant and disrespectful of the prerogatives of the European Parliament. Threatening deputies opposed to the Action Plan by waving infringement procedures against countries, as Manfredi did, is certainly not the most correct way to start a dialogue and find forms of mediation", he continues. "I remind the manager that the European Parliament is the only democratically elected institution of the EU, and is therefore the voice of citizens, including fishermen. Too many times the Commission and the Member States have bypassed Parliament when it came to defining fishing efforts, for example. It is time to say no to this vulnus of democracy. Perhaps Manfredi should listen to his colleague, the general manager of DG Mare, who rightly recalled in the same hearing that "taking care of fish and the environment in which they live means taking care of the fishermen", he concludes.
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