Last week, the European Parliament made a loud appeal to the European Commission, urging the implementation of a Common Fisheries Policyto improve the welfare of aquatic animals.
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) covers both the aquaculture and fisheries sectors and plays an important role in setting the main objectives for the management of fisheries and fisheries resources in EU waters, together with the financial and market aspects of aquaculture. It ensures that both sectors are environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.
On January 18, the European Parliament voted on what the next steps in the implementation of the CFP should include, adopting the principles set out in a new report outlining the successes and shortcomings of the CFP. common fisheries policy since the last renovation more than ten years ago.
However, while the report calls for updated legislation, it ignores the fact that the main reason why the CFP does not lead to this is sustainable fishing in the EU is that Member States systematically set their fishing quotas above scientific recommendations.
The priority in updating this regulation should be to improve implementation and compliance with the regulations common fisheries policy or PPC, but always in line with the latest scientific developments and discoveries and clearly positioned against the overfishing.
Common fisheries policy = animal welfare
A critical defect of the common fisheries policy The current situation is that no attention is paid to the welfare of aquatic animals, despite the fact that billions of them are farmed, fished and ultimately slaughtered every year in the European Union.
Although Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union requires that fisheries policy, inter alia, “pay full attention to the welfare needs of animals”, common fisheries policy o The CFP is the only EU policy that deals with live fish and aquatic animals, but not with them at all animal welfare.
Recently, Members of the European Parliament have stated that there is an urgent need for change in this area. And they called on the European Commission to take the welfare of farmed and wild-caught fish into account in the new CFP.
This measure corresponds to the sentiment expressed by European citizens in the 2023 Eurobarometer. As more than 90% of respondents indicated that there are some basic ethical requirements in agricultural practices as well as in the breeding of any living creature.
This is also in line with the scientific recognition of fish sensitivity, something confirmed by the European Food Safety Authority of the European Commission. Therefore, the European Parliament’s request echoes that of the Council of the European Union, which in June also urged the Commission to improve the welfare of aquatic animals by common fisheries policy o PPC.
In the same vein, Commissioner Sinkevicius also made a promising statement during the debate. And he spoke out in favor of the revision of the CFP, including some form of recognition and solution to this problem. He did this by saying: “I (…) recognize that future research and innovation are needed, especially in the area of species-specific welfare parameters (…).”
For him Eurogroup for AnimalsThis gives them hope that the demands of European citizens will be heard and that the revision of the CFP will achieve an improvement in animal welfare conditions, including for aquatic animals.”