The Commission's proposal on fishing in protected areas of the European Union is "unacceptable", "disconnected from reality" and would "condemn artisanal fishing". This is the harsh judgment of the French Secretary of State for Fisheries, Hervé Berville, expressed upon his arrival at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council today in Brussels. The meeting will discuss the Commission's plan to eliminate bottom trawling and all mobile bottom trapping devices such as dredges in marine protected areas. "We cannot accept proposals that are disconnected from reality, and this is the case with the European Commission's proposal which makes no distinction" between industrial and artisanal fishing, and which "would result in a condemnation of French and European artisanal fishing". For this reason, Berville said, "we are working with the different countries to demonstrate" that this reform "would be a defeat for European fishing but above all that there are solutions that exist everywhere in our territory". For this reason, concluded the Secretary of State, "I have come to say that this proposal cannot be accepted".
"In devising European agricultural and fisheries policies, three fundamental principles must be kept in mind, "protection of resources, economic sustainability of businesses and above all strengthening of food sovereignty". Continues the French Secretary of State for Fisheries, Hervé Berville, at his I arrive at today's EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels According to Berville "the war in Ukraine, Covid and recent geopolitical developments show that the issue of food sovereignty is important".
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