By Martin Banks - 12th October 2011
The late start has meant that only 15 per cent of the EFF budget was paid out in October 2010
Indrani Lutchman
A new study has recommended a raft of improvements to the European fisheries fund (EFF).
The report, presented at a parliamentary hearing, comes ahead of a new commission communication on the EFF in November.
The EFF is part of the common fisheries policy (CFP) which is currently the subject of a major review by the commission.
Parliament hired a firm of consultants to evaluate the current scheme and the results were presented to a meeting of the assembly's fisheries committee.
The study makes a number of criticisms of the EFF programme, saying that it has "weak intervention logic" at EU level, "which is likely to weaken its impacts".
It goes on, "It is also lacking a quantitative reporting tool to facilitate monitoring."
The commission has proposed major changes to the CFP designed to cut waste and stop overfishing in European waters.
Under the plan, the existing system of fishing quotas – which often leads to tonnes of perfectly good fish being dumped at sea – will be reformed.
The commission says the current policy is wasteful, with 75 per cent of stocks still overfished and catches only a fraction of what they were 15 years ago. Catches of cod, for example, have declined by 70 per cent in the last 10 years.
The commission believes that the "top down" system of micro-managing fisheries is failing and that decision-making needs to be decentralised.
The method of allocating fishing quotas EU-wide has contributed to the serious depletion of stocks and crews that haul in more than the agreed quota often throw large quantities of dead fish back into the sea – the much-criticised "discards".
Indrani Lutchman, who helped draft the report, told the committee the commission was late implementing the regulation establishing the EFF.
"The late start has meant that only 15 per cent of the EFF budget was paid out in October 2010.
"Therefore, it is too late to analyse the economic, social or environmental impacts."
She said a survey conducted as part of the study noted a low uptake of EFF measures "linked to the global financial crisis".
It recommends several improvements to the fund, including "timely and user-friendly" assistance from the commission.
Lutchman added, "Delivery and programme content of the future EFF will need to be improved."
