Equal access to fishing grounds is in fact a concept which stems from the fundamental EU treaty principle of non-discrimination among member states. However the concept is overlaid in the Common Fisheries Policy by the explicit derogations in respect of the six and 12 mile limits; the limitations on access by Spain and Portugal to the Irish Box; and by the arrangements for allocation of national quotas through relative stability. Relative stability itself is in legal terms an explicit derogation from the treaty principle of non-discrimination and, allowing for Ireland's longstanding difficulties with quota allocations under the system, any fundamental shift away from the principle of relative stability itself and the operation of the Hague Preference could produce a result much less favourable to Irish fishing interests. We need to work to improve the system rather than abandon it.
The existing arrangements under the CFP regulation which allow for exclusive coastal state access in the six mile limits and virtually exclusive access in the six-12 mile limit are unlikely to be removed in the 2002 review. The debate is more likely to centre on extending those limits somewhat beyond 12 miles for all member states to reflect the socio-economic importance of coastal fisheries and conservation of inshore fish stocks. I welcome the prospect of that debate.
It is also the case that the nature of fisheries resources means that unilateral management by individual states is no longer a realistic option and the international trend is increasingly towards co-operation and common rules on conservation and management of fish stocks. Overfishing is the single most dangerous threat to national, EU and international fish stocks as the Canadian experience in the early 1990s in its own cod fisheries vividly underlined. Within the CFP framework the immediate goals are the uniform enforcement of conservation and quota rules across the EU and much more effective and productive co-operation between member states in fisheries management on a regional as well as EU-wide basis.
