EU Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella has told industry body Europeche the sector must not be killed off in order to save fish stocks.
Mr Vella, still in his first year in the role after taking over from Maria Damanaki, was guest of honour at Europeche’s 2015 general assembly.
He spent two hours listening to members’ concerns about fisheries policies. These included the so-called landing obligation, which is aimed at putting an end to the wasteful practice of fish discarding at sea.
The commissioner, who also highlighted the dangers of marine litter, said it was vital to create economic sustainability for the industry.
“We don’t want to kill the fishermen to save the fish,” he said, adding: “We need to give credit to the fishermen who made the sacrifices to achieve the objectives we are witnessing today. We cannot lose momentum.”
Europeche members raised the community impact fisheries with Mr Vella and welcomed a pledge by him to attend a future “social dialogue” committee meeting.
Javier Garat, Europeche president, said: “I am very pleased that Commissioner Vella is actively engaging with the fishing sector and has shown a great willingness to continue this open door policy into the future.
“Our fishermen have made a concerted effort to reduce pressure on stocks and cooperate more closely with scientists and as we have heard from (science body) Ices, we are seeing the positive results.”
Ices – the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea – has reported a decline in the number of overfished stocks in the north-east Atlantic.