Serious reform of ‘broken’ EU fishing policy demanded

The commission is publishing its plans for reforming the Common Fisheries Policy this week, with protracted negotiations over the proposals expected in the next two years.

Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon has said he wanted to see different parts of the EU given more control over fisheries to reflect regional differences across Europe and an end to “micro-managing” by Brussels.

And he said there should be an end to “discards”, in which fish are thrown overboard because fishermen do not have quotas for them, want to use up their quota on higher-value stock, or they are species that have no commercial value.

But measures are needed to back up any “discards ban” and the UK has a number of such schemes, including giving fishermen higher quotas in return for not discarding any fish, minimum landing sizes to ensure bigger mesh nets are used to stop small, immature fish being caught and efforts to encourage consumers to eat new species.