Fish Fight Continental Europe (Step II) Project Number: 2260
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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 Common Fisheries Policy, 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, Germany 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 Werner Kuhn, 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. Page 3 of 6 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.