Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-17-Speech-4-062-000"
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"en.20111117.4.4-062-000"2
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". – Mr President, at this very moment around the world, at least one out of every five fish that is eaten has been taken out of the sea illegally. Some of these fish perhaps is the result of fishing a little bit over the quota by basically legal operators that may stretch the rules – which of course is not acceptable – but a lot of that fish is also taken by large-scale operators that premeditate and organise their crimes in a very skilled manner, who deliberately hide between flags of convenience, hide behind shell companies registered in tax havens, operators that bribe and corrupt coastguards and customs officers, operators that steal fish from sensitive unprotected areas and put the billion-euro profit directly into their own pockets, organised crime that now operate with a minimal risk of detection and sanction all over the world, especially in developing countries’ waters and in the high seas in international waters.
It is estimated that illegal fishing accounts for between 11 and 26 million tonnes of fish a year, making illegal fishing the world’s second largest fish producer in the world.
The EU last year put in place its new IUU and control regulations and this was indeed a major step forward in the fight against IUU globally.
One of the main elements was the new catch certification document that now has to accompany all the fish that enters the EU. This is important, since over 60% of all fish that is consumed in the EU today is imported. Why is this the case? Because we have overfished our own waters, consciously and with large contributions from subsidies, and this has led to a 40% decrease of catches since 1995. So our increasing dependency on fish from the outside, and with the EU fleet itself fishing all over the planet, our own responsibility to see to it that this fish is not illegally or irresponsibly caught is very evident.
In my report I point to some of the dangers to the world that overfishing, and illegal fishing in particular, poses. They are not small. It threatens food security in developing countries, but also for future generations. It is one of the major causes of loss of biodiversity on the planet today, and the emptying of the world’s oceans of its living creatures is also degrading marine ecosystems so the oceans to a lesser extent are capable of doing their job as carbon sinks absorbing CO
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We, the EU, have signed up to a lot of international obligations to eradicate hunger, halt the loss of biodiversity and fight against climate change – and fighting against the very concrete threats to the ocean that international illegal fishing represents is one of the most evident steps that the EU can take to try to achieve all of these objectives.
In my report, I point to a number of concrete actions that the EU must take. We cannot wait for the UN to move, we have to take unilateral actions in order to form alliances with the world’s largest fish markets. We need global certification schemes. But documents are not enough. We need global databases of fish DNA, we need global electronic traceability systems and we need advanced police cooperation between states.
We cannot forget that two thirds of the world’s oceans are beyond national jurisdiction, and that the control, management and conservation of these areas today is largely lacking. I am therefore very happy that the European Parliament states the need to enlarge the regional fisheries organisations, both extend their geographical extension but also their mandate. They have to become more of management and conservation authorities, and less of exploitation clubs.
I would like to express my thanks to all the shadows, of course, and a last comment is about the amendment about the introduction of a common European coastguard dealing with migrants, etc. I believe this is an issue far too politically sensitive to be included in my report, and therefore I recommend deleting those words from paragraphs 12 and 13."@en1
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