MINISTER for Agriculture and Fisheries Brendan Smith says that any new EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) must simplify and reduce “administrative burden” while maximising employment on the coastline.
In a comment in Luxembourg yesterday on publication this week of the EU Green Paper on CFP reform, Mr Smith said that simplified approach would be a “key objective of Ireland”.
“The current Green Paper is the first step in a reform process which will come to fruition in 2012,” he said, and Ireland welcomed it as it would shape “the strategic blueprint” for the industry for the next decade.
The European Commission was “questioning even the fundamentals” in the review, EU fisheries commissioner Joe Borg said.
Nothing short of a completely new fisheries management system would halt years of dangerously depleted stocks and get the industry back on its feet, he said.
Mr Smith said: “We strongly favour an industry that delivers jobs for many in coastal communities rather than the concentration of wealth in a few big international fishing businesses with no obvious benefit for Irish fishing communities.”
