Informal Presidency meeting dedicated to fish

“The common organisation of the market in fisheries and aquaculture products must be changed considerably and adapted to new challenges,” EU Directors-General for Fisheries agreed on Monday at the Prague Congress Centre.

Directors-General for Fisheries of the whole EU-27 met in Prague at an informal meeting to discuss the further direction of the reform of the common organisation of the market in fisheries and aquaculture products on the basis of the European Commission document.

They also agreed that this organisation should fit in the overall framework of the Common Fisheries Policy, be efficient, simpler, secure better and faster responses to market needs and be able to provide help in crises similar to the current one. ”The Common Market Organisation is one of the main areas of the Common Fisheries Policy. Well-functioning trade, linking supply with demand, is the basis for a well-functioning common policy”, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture Jiří Novák in his opening speech. ”The reform of the current, rather obsolete, organisation of the market is necessary. The reformed organisation should be able to face the challenges of the 21st century.”

The discussion mainly focused on the role of producers’ organisations, support, financing and trade.

Producers’ organisations should play a key role – they should be on equal footing with supermarket chains, wholesalers and retailers. They should be given more responsibility in a number of areas – from marketing strategies to the issue of origin traceability to product labelling and data collection. To put it simply, they should contribute in a more active way to creating added value. However, they must above all become more attractive for businesses. Forcing them to participate is not a solution.

Concerning support, the directors agreed that the system of market support must be overhauled in order to respond to the situation on the market. One of the marketing tools – storage aid – is considered useful and works as a buffer zone when volumes of products on the market, or prices, fluctuate.

Positions on trade issues differ according to whether the talk is about imports or exports. Imports are important to keep up supplies for the processing industry. Exports are fundamental as a source of income for companies which are often undercapitalised. The directors also touched upon the related issue of ensuring equal standards for import of products which however must be entirely in accordance with WTO rules.

“The Common Market Organisation should help operators improve their medium- and long-term planning, in particular as regards investments, looking for new business opportunities and building stable and prosperous businesses”, explained Director-General Martin Žižka, who chaired the meeting. “On the other hand, the CMO should give consumers the guarantee that the fish they are buying are healthy, and from a verified and safe source, whether they were caught at sea or are a product of aquaculture”, added Žižka. As part of the accompanying programme the Directors General will visit southern Bohemia, the traditional centre of freshwater fisheries in the Czech Republic.

The debate on the future directions of the Common Market Organisation will continue in the months to come, under the Swedish and Spanish Presidencies.