Emma McClarkin MEP welcomes fisheries reform and end to discards

East Midlands MEP Emma McClarkin has welcomed today’s historic vote in Strasbourg which will bring an end to fish discards under EU’s Common Fisheries Policy.

Today’s vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg marks a ‘long-overdue step on the road to reform’ of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), but there are still enormous hurdles to clear before meaningful change which will make EU fisheries sustainable in the long-term.

The vote now provides a mandate for reform from MEPs that will end discards, devolve day-to-day fisheries management to Member States, block any move towards internationally Transferrable Fishing Concessions (TFCs) and introduce the concept of Maximum Sustainable Yields (MSY) for future long-term sustainable stock management.

Miss McClarkin said:

“The Big Fishfight campaigners and the public will be delighted that the EU has finally listened to them and brought the practice of wasteful discards to an end.

“These reforms will wrestle control away from the micro-managers in Brussels who have made such an absolute mess of fisheries policy for the past 30 years.

“We will also see an urgent timetable set for an absolute ban on the scandal of dumping and discards. The Spanish lobbied hard for an amendment which would have kicked the discards measures far into the long grass. But thankfully it was defeated.

“Every vote counted; we still have a long road ahead to get the reforms right but the vote today in Strasbourg was a seminal and long-overdue step on the road to reform of the CFP.”