""With 13 votes in favour of the reform package, 10 votes against and 2 abstentions in committee today, the victory was a narrow one and there is still a lot of work to do to ensure we can deliver for Britain's fishermen."...MEPs coincidentally were voting on sweeping CFP reform plans....The MEPs' voting session on the CFP lasted four hours and involved 3,000 amendments to the commission's proposals.
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If approved by full European Parliament measures would begin in 2014.
12/18/12, "EU politicians back science-based fisheries," Nature News Blog, Daniel Cressey
"Fisheries experts were celebrating today after European politicians advanced
and strengthened a major scientific reform of fisheries policy.
Members of the European Parliament’s fisheries committee voted through a series of reforms including a ban on discards — the practice of throwing back unwanted and often dead or dying fish — and an insistence that the levels for fish catches should be set on the basis of scientific advice.
Greenpeace’s fisheries expert Saskia Richartz called the vote “a turning point after decades of complacency”, and the
Seas At Risk pressure group declared that “Christmas has come early this year for European fish stocks”.
Initial proposals from the European Commission for reform of the ‘common fisheries policy’ (CFP) in 2011 were given a cautious welcome. But campaigners were disappointed earlier this year when ministers from member-state governments agreed a set of proposals that some scientists and campaign groups believed would not protect vulnerable species.
After today’s vote the whole European Parliament must agree on its proposals for a new CFP, which it will then debate with the ministers until a compromise agreement is reached.
For now, however, the mood seems jubilant in Brussels. After the vote, Member of European Parliament Chris Davies, founder of the pro-reform Fish for the Future group and a member of the fisheries committee, tweeted that he was “going to stand in front of a mirror
so that I can look at the grin on my face”."
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"Under the Lisbon Treaty MEPs now help to shape EU laws in the area of agriculture and fisheries."
12/19/12, "Fisheries reforms: MEPs back plan to protect stocks," BBC
"The changes to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) propose obliging trawlers to land all catches in accordance with a calendar for each species, starting in 2014. In addition, undersized fish in the catch would be banned from sale for human consumption.
Mr Stevenson said the reforms should also include funding to help trawlers install more ecological equipment, especially new nets, to minimise unwanted catches.
Fishing crews would still be able to discard some species that have a high survivability rate, like prawns and crabs, up to a 5% limit in the catch, he said.
The MEPs objected to the Commission's call for transferable concessions - the idea that fleets could trade their catch quotas within a nation over long periods. However, Mr Stevenson said member states "may introduce a system of temporary transfers, similar to what happens at present, if they wish, within their own zones"....
The MEPs' plan for the CFP builds on reforms proposed by the Commission last year. The amended plan is expected to be put to a vote in the full European Parliament in February, so that the new CFP can take effect in 2014.
Under the Lisbon Treaty MEPs now help to shape EU laws in the area of agriculture and fisheries."
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