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EAPO DISCUSSES CHALLENGES FACING EUROPEAN FISHING
EAPO discusses challenges facing European fishing. The European Association of Fish Producers Organisations held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2022 earlier this month in Gothenburg, Sweden. At the event, Sarah Colliander, Sweden’s Fisheries Director, said the main challenges faced by the industry were the increasing competition for space and the consequences of Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine crisis.
She declared:
“EAPO can be a forum where competition within the EU is avoided and the interests of EU fisheries are jointly addressed.”
Frangiscos Nikolian, DG MARE Head of Unit A4, attended online to discuss topics important for EAPO. There was an exchange on the Commissions’ task to finalise reports on the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulations, with EAPO stressing the need for a more thorough revision.
The status and funding of transnational POs, the action plan on biodiversity and the revision of the marketing standards were amongst other subjects of discussion. EAPO thanked the Commission for putting forward the required legal instruments and guidelines to allow all Member States to grant aids to address the commodity prices crisis due to the Ukraine conflict and calls upon all Member States to use these possibilities and maintain the level playing field within the EU fisheries sector to provide healthy and nutritious food to European citizens.
President Esben Sverdrup-Jensen reported on the numerous topics and activities addressed since the last AGM in October 2021, the Working Group chairs entered into more detail on their own activities and the Accounts, Budget and Work Program were approved. EAPO’s main objectives for 2022-2023 are to continue working towards meeting the increasing European demand for sustainable seafood.
“Eleven years ago, the main issue for POs was fixing the minimal prices. Nowadays the list of active topics keeps increasing, the days where we could run EAPO during our free time are gone”, said EAPO’s President Esben Sverdrup-Jensen. “With a Policy Officer joining the team we now have the resources to boost our communication and to organise our work in providing feedback from our members’ members – the fishers – to the EU institutions dealing with policies and management affecting fisheries.”
This year’s AGM was hosted by the Swedish Pelagic Federation PO and the Dutch members confirmed that the 2023 meeting will be organised in the Netherlands.
Källa: FishFocus