Europe: future of fish processing industry

Since the hearing of November 2001 on the challenges facing the fish processing industry, a wide-ranging debate has taken place in this sector, an area of economic activity with a longstanding tradition in the European Union.

In a draft resolution, the Fisheries Committee has set out the broad position it wishes to submit to Parliament as its contribution to this discussion. The Committee stressed this week that the fish processing industry is of vital importance for the EU's supplies of food, for which it is highly dependent on imports. Moreover, this is a labour-intensive industry - with some 90,000 jobs - and hence a source of income for regions dependent on fisheries, having an annual turnover of more than €10 billion.

MEPs, having deplored the shortcomings of the Green Paper on the Future of Fisheries, are now calling on the Commission to include the processing industry in its proposals to reform the CFP. They add that the fisheries industry, including the processing side, should only be subject to a certain degree to internal market rules. They therefore want the Commission to submit a paper to Council and Parliament containing an analysis of the industry and describing the policies pursued in this area.

Some amendments proposed by the Committee's reporter, Brigitte Langenhagen (EPP-ED, D), concern matters which are important for the economic and social development of the industry, such as the gradual abolition of customs duties on raw materials for processing (with the exception of sensitive products such as imports of tuna loin and Asian preserves), the co-ordination of measures to liberalise port services, the need to maintain and increase structural aid for modernising the industry and the problems of recycling waste water.

MEPs also stressed that consumers must be able to rely on precise product designations, in particular in the case of canned sardines and tuna from third countries, and on the harmonisation of trade names of processed fishery products, so as to prevent confusion. Lastly, the industry can only benefit, they say, from tighter controls designed to ensure the quality of products and guarantee food safety.