The EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Responds to our Questions

Slow Food has been following the legislative process over the CFP reform with interest and is glad to see that in the future the Council will have to confront Members of Parliament in a co-decision process that allows increased transparency and greater participation of civil society in the debate.

Slow Food is also happy to see that the decisions made finally take into consideration not only economic but also ecological factors, yet it is disappointed that the reform is still based on applying an industrial logic to fishing – reflected for example in a stock by stock approach instead of an ecosystem-based approach – while seeking to neutralize its most negative effects. It will there still seriously affect fleet diversity.

In addition, Slow Food believes that aquaculture not only is not a solution to overfishing, but that it will indeed aggravate ocean management problems by increasing forage fishing and polluting waters.

Click here to hear the EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki’s answers to our questions.