Condensato. (Si consiglia di leggere il testo inglese per i dettagli).

La politica attuale e’ considerata un disastro. Alcuni attribuiscono valore di svolta all’accordo appena raggiunto, mentre diverse associazioni dichiarano che e’ troppo limitato.

Maria Damanaki, commissario Europeo per l’industria della pesca; Ulrike Rodust, a German member of the European Parliament; and Simon Coveney, ministro irlandese per la pesca, hanno raggiunto giovedi scorso un accordo che modifica per la prima volta dal 2002 la politica comunitaria per la pesca. Ci si aspetta ora l’approvazione di tutti i 27 paesi della comunita’.

M. Damanaki ha detto “questo accordo e’ un passo storico per tutti coloro che lavorano nel campo della pesca e dell’acquacultura. Cambieremo radicalmente il modo di pescare in futuro”.

Secondo i dati dell’Unione Europea le popolazioni ittiche per le quali la pesca ha passato livelli sostenibili (overfishing) sono il 47% in Atlantico e 80% in Mediterraneo.

In febbraio l’Europarlamento ha approvato restrizioni severe nonostante l’opposizione del consiglio delle industrie europee della pesca. Da allora le parti hanno cercato di risolvere le loro differenze. Si dovrebbe fermare la pesca eccessiva entro il 2015, in modo da tornare a livelli sostenibili per le varie specie ittiche.

Diverse organizzazioni esprimono approvazione per la posizione decisa dall’Europarlamento, ma alcuni critici dubitano della volonta’ dell’Europa di applicare le sue leggi e fanno notare che non sono state definite date di scadenza . Secondo il capo del programma WWF per la pesca in Mediterraneo, Sergi Tudela, il linguaggio dell’accordo signnifica che potrebbero passare 100 anni prima che alcune specie tornino a livelli sostenibili.

Si profila all’orizzonte la battaglia per i sussidi che l’Unione Europea paga annualmente ai pescatori, sussidi considerati una causa di overfishing perche’ mantengono in attivita’ pescherecci che altrimenti si fermerebbero.By DAVID JOLLY Published: May 30, 2013, from NYTimes.com

The current policy is widely considered a failure. While officials hailed it as a landmark agreement, some environmentalists said the deal might not be ambitious enough. The agreement, the first overhaul of the Common Fisheries Policy since 2002, was reached early Thursday by Maria Damanaki, the European fisheries commissioner; Ulrike Rodust, a German member of the European Parliament; and Simon Coveney, the Irish fisheries minister, on behalf of the European Union’s 27 national fishing ministries. The deal requires the consent of all 27 member countries of the European Union, but their approval is expected. “This is a historic step for all those involved in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors,” Ms. Damanaki said in a statement. “We are going to change radically the way we fish in the future.” The current policy has been widely regarded as a failure. According to European Union data, 80 percent of Mediterranean fish stocks and 47 percent of Atlantic stocks have been overfished. In February, Parliament gave overwhelming support for a strict new policy. But the European fisheries council balked at the plan. Since then, both sides have worked to resolve their differences. As part of the deal, negotiators agreed to end overfishing by setting quotas at levels consistent with scientific advice and bringing fleet capacity in line with fish stocks. Overfishing is supposed to stop by 2015, with a five-year grace period for exceptional cases. Officials also agreed that stocks should be managed with a goal of being returned to sustainable levels. They also decided to seek an end to the wasteful practice of discarding unwanted fish at sea. The new rules will also pass on more decision-making to the national and local authorities. The negotiators rejected a proposal to create transferable fishing rights, which had prompted fears among small operators that Europe’s fishing quotas would end up in the hands of large companies. Ms. Damanaki said the overhaul would also address the claim that European fleets act in environmentally destructive ways in overseas waters. “We are going to apply the same principles when we are fishing abroad,” she said. “We will fully respect international law and our commitments.” Conservation organizations generally applauded the deal reached on Thursday, praising Parliament for taking a strong stand. But critics question Europe’s will to enforce its own laws, noting that no deadline had been set for the sustainability goal. Sergi Tudela, head of the fisheries program at the environmental group WWF Mediterranean, said the language in the agreement meant that it might be 100 years before some stocks recovered to sustainable levels. The deal “fails to end overfishing and ensure recovery of fish stocks within a reasonable time frame,” Mr. Tudela said. Uta Bellion, a spokeswoman for the Pew Charitable Trusts and Ocean2012, a coalition of environmental organizations, said identifying sustainability as a management principle was an important step, despite the lack of a target date. The deal, she added, showed that Europe had learned the lessons of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, a 1976 law in the United States that is credited with improving the supervision of American commercial fishing. Ms. Bellion also said she welcomed an element of the new policy that rewards “low impact” fishers by giving them a larger share of the catch, a measure to encourage environmentally responsible practices. Another battle looms on the horizon, this time over the subsidies the European Union pays out annually to fishermen. Those subsidies are considered to be a cause of unsustainable overfishing, since they keep otherwise unprofitable boats in the water.