Fish Fight Continental Europe (Step II) Project number: 2260

Final report to BalticSea 2020

20 September 2013

Executive Summary

Fish Fight Continental Europe (Step II) [‘Phase 2’] ran from September 2012 to September 2013. It was a campaign to raise public awareness of the reform of the , and to lobby for the laws to change to end the wasteful practice of discards (throwing fish overboard at sea) and to end the overfishing of EU fish stocks.

The first phase of Fish Fight in the EU established campaigns in France, Spain, and Poland. The timeframe of the CFP reform extended beyond the anticipated end date in 2012, Phase 2 enabled us to keep our EU campaigns and UK-based campaign office running until political agreement was reached on the ‘basic regulation’ of the new Common Fisheries Policy.

Thanks in part to the impact of Fish Fight, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for an ambitious and sustainable reform of the CFP. Europe’s Fisheries Ministers remained more divided, but Fish Fight ensured that it was politically unacceptable for them not to agree that discards must be drastically reduced.

MEPs and Fisheries Ministers finally reached agreement on the new CFP in June 2013. They agreed on a ‘discard ban’, and on setting fishing quotas in line with scientific advice on the Maximum Sustainable Yield. There are perceived to be some weaknesses in the new laws, and there remains the huge job of implementing reform across Europe. But the new CFP is widely regarded as an enormous improvement, that should begin to set Europe’s fisheries on a track to long-term recovery.

Keo Films received funding of £102,000 from BalticSea 2020 for Fish Fight Phase 2. The project also received funding from the Oak Foundation, Addessium Foundation and Waterloo Foundation. Keo Films would like to thank BalticSea 2020 for helping to fund this project and their collaboration and helpful approach throughout.

Keo Films 9-10 Great Sutton Street, London, EC1V 0BX t: +44 20 7490 3580

Will Anderson – Executive Producer [email protected] Adam Scott – Producer [email protected]

Page 1 of 6 Aims and Objectives

Until now, Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy has required fishermen to discard fish at sea that are beyond the quota they hold. This results in a huge waste of nutritious fish, makes it harder to do good science and assess fish stocks, and means there is little incentive to fish selectively. The aim of the Fish Fight campaign was to change the CFP so that discards are ended.

Additionally, in Phase 2 it was our aim to raise pressure on politicians to end overfishing of European fish stocks. In the CFP reform, this would mean politicians being required to set fishing quotas in line with ‘maximum sustainable yield’ (MSY), so that fish stocks are not further depleted.

To achieve these aims, our objectives were to:

• Build public awareness across Europe of the Fish Fight campaign and the issues of discards, overfishing, and sustainable consumption • Get more sign-ups to the Fish Fight online petition • Ensure the discard ban proposed by the European Commission remained part of the new CFP, and that its provisions remained ambitious, implementable and enforceable. • Ensure that the new CFP had ambitious and legally-binding targets to end overfishing. • Target MEPs on the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament (PECH) in the run-up to their vote on the CFP in December 2012 • Target all MEPs in the European Parliament before their Plenary vote in February 2013 • Target Europe’s Fisheries Ministers at their key Council meetings • Keep the CFP reform in the media throughout the process, up to and including the final trialogue negotiations between Parliament, Council and Commission.

Page 2 of 6 Summary of key activities

AUTUMN 2012 - targeted action in key countries We held public film screening events in the constituencies of key MEPs on the Fisheries Committee, gaining media attention, petition sign-ups, and sending postcards from constituents to their MEPs. We held a Fish Fight launch event in France with actress Melanie Laurent and two high-profile chefs. and getting the Fish Fight message out to all MEPs As the European Parliament geared up for its key votes on the new CFP, we distributed DVDs of Fish Fight, along with letters in native languages, to hundreds of MEPs across Europe.

DECEMBER 2012 – the Fisheries Committee votes on discards In the run-up to the crucial vote in the Fisheries Committee, we targeted the conservative German MEP , sending 29,400 emails to him and his fellow German EPP MEPs. Personal letters were also sent from our celebrities to other Committee members. And we used Twitter to raise the profile of the key amendment for a discard ban. An extremely tight vote was anticipated in the committee, but it swung the right way for a discard ban and an end to overfishing, by 13 votes to 10.

FEBRUARY 2013 – the big day for CFP reform in the European Parliament In the Plenary vote on the CFP, every MEP in Europe had the chance to vote for a sustainable reform, or allow the failed status-quo to continue. We sent a team to Strasbourg to set up the Fish Fight boat counter, and distribute free coffee and sandwiches plastered with our message about the key amendment on discards. Online, we activated our databases across Europe to email MEPs. We built a tool allowing Fish Fighters everywhere to contact MEPs in their native language. Over 174,000 emails were sent in total, getting politicians from Helsinki to Hungary talking about Fish Fight. The result of the plenary vote was a huge success for Fish Fight and all those fighting for a sustainable future, setting a strong mandate for the following negotiations with the Council of Ministers.

SPRING 2013 – trialogue negotiations and political agreement on the new CFP Across the spring, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament went behind closed doors to find agreement on the new CFP. Our celebrity leaders across Europe came together for an open letter urging politicians to find an agreement that preserved the discard ban and ambitious end to overfishing. The end result was mixed – with the Council of Ministers refusing to improve its position substantially - but has been hailed as an immense improvement on the existing policy. Crucially for Fish Fight, the new CFP enshrines the principle that discarding huge quantities of fish is wrong and must be eliminated. And the politicians agreed that most European Union fish stocks will be fished sustainably by 2015 and all stocks by 2020.

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Impact

The new CFP The new Common Fisheries Policy does include a ‘ban’ on discards and does require politicians to restore fish stocks and set sustainable fishing levels. Fish Fight has played an important part in ensuring these elements were not lost as the CFP was negotiated. In both cases, there are perceived weaknesses to how these new rules have been written. The discard ban includes exemptions that will allow some fish to be discarded, and if abused these exemptions could see quite substantial amounts of fish thrown back. The provisions on Maximum Sustainable Yield fail to set a target date for rebuilding fish stocks.

It is our view that the agreed CFP remains implementable and realistic enough to keep key sectors of the fishing industry on board. As formulated, the discard ban does not address some more fundamental issues such as relative stability that lead to mis-matched quotas in mixed fisheries. Fish Fight did not set out to achieve a ‘discard ban’, but to see an end to the CFP requiring fishermen to discard and moving to a new paradigm where discarding dead fish is considered unacceptable.

Public impact Our teams in Europe worked to gain public engagement both at the local level (film screenings in key constituencies), and national level through celebrity backing and media interest. In the countries where our key celebrities have remained highly engaged in Fish Fight and our teams were able to foster strong media links, the public impact has been high, though we did not reach our target of one million signatures on the Fish Fight petition. Our original aim of broadcasting bespoke Fish Fight documentaries in each of our key EU countries was not achieved due to the vagaries of television broadcasters’ wants and needs. We did achieve national broadcast of Fish Fight’s subject matter in 3 mini-documentaries in the Biodiario programme.

In Spain, a team with a strong PR skill-set have been especially effective in gaining media profile: over 700 mentions across all media. As a result, we have over 34,000 petition sign- ups in Spain. Germany and France have over 9,000 sign ups. Poland has been our least successful EU campaign, with just under 2,000 sign ups. Sadly, our Polish team were unable to find a broadcaster willing to show the 25 minute documentary they produced, but did put on local screenings as part of Fish Fight events.

A principal challenge throughout Fish Fight has been to maintain public and media interest over the long timeframe of CFP reform. It is now 3 years since the Fish Fight campaign began in the UK. The nature of the co-decision process in Brussels means there has been numerous occasions where the media has reported that ‘the fight is won’ and ‘a ban on discards has been agreed’. While it is a good sign that the media retained a degree of interest throughout the reform, the multiple votes and meetings across 18 months could confuse even the most engaged member of the public. Fish Fight was successful in keeping the message sufficiently varied and changing the approach of our digital actions across the reform process to keep interest up.

In summary, our EU campaigns achieved a varied impact on the public in their countries. In France, Spain, and Germany we retained an engaged supporter base which was able to have an impact on the major votes in the CFP reform process. Across these 3 countries,

Page 4 of 6 supporters sent a total of 58,000 emails to their MEPs in advance of the Plenary vote in February 2013.

Fish Fight has a total of 90,000 signatories to its petition across the EU (excluding UK).

Impact on MEPs There were two key moments for MEPs in the CFP reform, requiring a different approach from Fish Fight in each case. The MEPs on the Fisheries Committee understand the issues in detail and are less subject to last-minute lobbying. So for their vote in December 2012 we did not activate our whole databases and undertake mass online action. We built pressure towards the vote through personal letters to MEPs, copies of the Fish Fight film, events in several key constituencies, and postcards from constituents. In addition we did create an online action in Germany for supporters to email EPP politician Werner Kuhn and all other German EPP MEPs. The aim was to highlight his divergence from the German government’s position and build division in the German EPP with a view to the upcoming Plenary vote.

The PECH vote was a close vote but swung 13 to 10 in favour of a sustainable reform, including a discard ban and end to overfishing. Both Polish MEPs on the PECH committee voted for progressive reform. The Spanish socialist MEP Dolores Garcia-Hierro did not attend the vote and was replaced by a Danish MEP who is progressive on fishery issues. It was suspected that her withdrawal was tactical and the impact of Fish Fight in Spain may well have played a part in this. The German Fish Fight campaign has maintained strong support for the rapporteur on the CFP, Ulrike Rodust MEP, throughout the reform process.

The Plenary vote in February 2013 was a resounding success for progressive reform and the Fish Fight campaign in Europe. MEPs voted for a strong ban on discards, and an ambitious end to overfishing. Over 174,000 emails were sent to MEPs across Europe, raising the profile of the key amendment on discards. A number of German EPP MEPs split with their party line and voted progressively. The Spanish S&D MEPs voted for reform. Anecdotally, we know that our multi-lingual action had MEPs from non-fishing nations talking about discards and overfishing.

The Plenary vote by MEPs gave the Parliament the strongest possible mandate for negotiation with the Council of Ministers.

Impact on Ministers In the Council of Ministers, the British and German ministers have remained progressive on CFP reform and supportive of Fish Fight’s aims of ending discards and ending overfishing. The profile of Fish Fight in these countries has helped keep the ministers attention on the issues. Our lead celebrity in Germany, Tim Mälzer, has a close relationship with German minister Ilse Aigner and has leveraged this effectively at key moments.

In France, Spain, and Poland, the Fish Fight campaign has been acknowledged by the Fisheries Ministers, though they have been much less receptive to our aims. The French and Spanish ministers have remained resistant to a discard ban and ambitious targets on ending overfishing. However the pressure of Northern Countries was enough to keep these on the table.

Fish Fight worked to influence the French minister in particular, co-hosting events in the Assemblée Nationale and giving evidence to the Economic Affairs Committee and European

Page 5 of 6 Affairs Committee. Anecdotally, we heard that the French Minister had put pressure on the MPs not to meet with Fish Fight. The minister sent a letter to Fish Fight acknowledging the campaign, though rebutting our aims.

The French and Spanish ministers were undoubtedly aware of the Fish Fight campaign, and though they failed to soften their stances on discards and overfishing, the reform went through when they could have sought to block it completely. Our impact on these ministers would have been greater if we had achieved television broadcasts in their countries and substantially bigger followings in those countries. An increased focus on positive stories and solutions to discards and overfishing would have likely played well with these ministers as well.

We brought Irish Minister Simon Coveney into focus as the CFP reform entered the trialogue phase, and made him one of the targets of a Twitter action. He had an important role as Ireland held the presidency of the Council of Ministers in the first half of 2013. In retrospect, even greater efforts to raise the profile of Fish Fight in Ireland could have had additional impact on the later stages of the reform.

Lessons learned

What worked well • Celebrity endorsement has been key to the Fish Fight strategy and has enabled us to gain significant public and media attention. • Focusing on key amendments in the run-up to Parliament votes made our message very simple and focused. Doing so required a high level of flexibility from our UK and EU teams and close integration between campaigners and our digital team. • Using a mixture of cross-border and country-specific actions to maximize our impact. We used country-specific actions within our EU target countries so representatives were hearing from their constituents. But we also used a more unconventional approach of building multi-lingual tools so our broader supporter base was heard throughout Europe.

Shortcomings • Failing to gain television broadcasts for Fish Fight documentaries in EU countries reduced our public impact and ability to gain supporters. • The success of our Spanish team demonstrates that – especially in the absence of a broadcast documentary – PR experience and skills are key to gaining media attention. • An increased focus on positive stories and solutions may have helped influence governments more effectively and gain more ‘champions’ from within the fishing industry.

Financial summary

Funds granted have been spent as per the original application schedule with the exception of the 'Screenings and hire of movie halls - £3000 per country'. This element was moved to cover additional event costs.

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