Fisheries control – fundamental for Common Fisheries Policy implementation

At the informal meetings, organised once every six months by the country holding the presidency of the EU Council, the participants discuss topical issues concerning the EU fishing industry and learn about the characteristics, traditions and culture of the industry in the host country.

At the informal meeting in Latvia, Directors-General and attachés for fisheries from 27 EU Member States, together with representatives from the European Commission and the European Fisheries Control Agency, discussed the changes brought about by the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The introduction of the new CFP led to changes in the approach to resource management that also have an undeniable impact on fisheries control. For example, the landing obligation has entered into force, as has the CFP regionalisation principle which opens up an opportunity to seek individual solutions for the use of fish stocks in each region. The implementation of such innovations is, however, complex.

At the opening of the meeting, Normunds Riekstiņš, Director of the Fisheries Department at the Latvian Ministry of Agriculture, emphasised: "Fisheries control is fundamental for the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy. Effective and, in terms of costs, balanced implementation will determine how successful the European Union will be in achieving the objectives of its new Common Fisheries Policy."

In the course of the meeting representatives from the Member States shared their experience in the implementation of fisheries controls. The Directors-General and attachés for fisheries agreed that the existing fisheries control policy must be revised because it does not fully meet the objectives set in the new CFP. They emphasised that it is important to make the control policy cost-effective and to reduce the administrative burden. They also pointed out that the funding to support fisheries control has been transferred to direct management by the Member States using support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

The participants also visited the Gamma A canned fish producer, the RR Fish aquaculture facility, which uses a recirculation system in sturgeon farming, and an ethnographic fisherman's farmstead by the River Daugava and restored salmon weir at the Daugava Museum.