European Fisheries Ministers today voted to scrap the existing Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and come up with a new system to be in place by 2012.

There was unanimous support for a new Common Fisheries Policy to be radically decentralised – giving more power to member states and to the industry.

According to the European Commission (EC), more than 80 per cent of Europe’s fish stocks are now overfished compared with a global average of 28 per cent.

In an unusual act, the EU is expected to consult Iceland, which has one of the best fishing conservation record, on the development of the new policy.

Bertie Armstrong, the chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said after the meeting that he was delighted with the result. “We hoped that decentralisation should be the focus – so that’s very good news. The basic decentralisation message is absolutely key here.”

He added: ‘The consensus on the need for change is important too – there appears to be genuinely no holds barred in terms of the scale of reform that could happen here, which is great.” The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations described the meeting as a landmark move.”

It will be interesting to see if all the commercial sectors are as keen given that the focus of the new policy is likely to centre around a drastic reduction in the size of trawler fleets and in the number of days boats can spend at sea.

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4. EU reform of CFP