Summary

• Autore: Nicolò Carnimeo
• Pagine: 189-191

189

SUMMARY

SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

REGULATORY TOOLS FOR A COMMON POLICY

Europe’s fishing activities are currently undergoing a

reform process, which is still in progress and which shall be

fully implemented at the beginning of 2013. The new Common

Fisheries Policy (CFP) proposed by the Commission in summer

2011 is focused on the concept of “sustainability” that ís the

reference of al! environmental, economic and social policies for

the reorganisation and enhancement of a sector that is

experiencing a deep crisis but also great changes.

Fishing becomes “sustainable” through several actions

directed towards science-based management of fish stocks to

ensure that they become sustainable over time and reach the level

known to the experts as the «MSY», namely the “maximum

sustainable yield”. This is an objective that harmonizes the policies

for the management of European seas, in particular the

Mediterranean Sea, to the objective set out in the United Nations

Convention on the Law of the Seas, and adopted at the 2002

World Summit on Sustainable Development as a target the

world should reach by 2015.

From now on, EU fisheries will be managed by multi-

annual plans and governed by the eco-system approach and the

precautionary principle to ensure that the impacts of fishing

activities on the marine ecosystem are limited. This requires

implementing tools already available in the complex system of

multilevel governance and applying international conventions

aimed to enforce an effective policy for the protection of the

marine environment, notably in the Mediterranean. These goal

orientations could be successful only if the activities relevant to