Fisheries Committee calls for increased market transparency to benefit consumers
- Labels should include more information on ingredients, date of catch, geographical fishing area and fishing gear
- Trade name “fish” or “fish species” should be reserved for products of animal origin
- More EU countries should make use of the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA) to improve data collection
- Commission identified flaws in consumer information requirements in some EU countries
More efforts are needed to improve consumer information, market transparency, increase traceability and harmonise the rules for fishery and aquaculture products in the EU, stress MEPs.
In a report assessing the implementation of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) on fisheries and aquaculture, the Fisheries Committee underlines that the legislation on monitoring and inspections should be harmonised, given the current low level of checks carried out in EU countries.
Approved by 19 votes in favour, none against and 5 abstentions, the report proposes that aquatic food products both from the EU and imported should respect the same environmental and social sustainability standards. Therefore, the specifications of the characteristics of all products should be included in trade agreements and in the measures of regional fisheries management organisations, to ensure that all producers respect the same standards, add MEPs.
Quoting the assessment of marketing standards carried out in 2019 by the Commission, MEPs also stress the need for national authorities to improve monitoring and inspections, while the rules should be simplified and modernised.
More information on labels
To enable consumers to make informed choices, MEPs call on the Commission to include information about the ingredients, geographical fishing area, fishing gear and date of catch on products’ labels. In addition, they ask for traceability to be more effective and for a proper labelling system to be implemented, which should be applied also to processed, fresh and preserved aquatic food products.
Stressing that the Commission identified flaws in consumer information requirements in some EU countries, in particular with substitute products and images that could wrongly lead to the idea of a fishery product, or with plant-based products using terms exclusively used by fisheries, MEPs ask for further investigations into the matter.
They also defend that the name “fish” or fish species should be used only for products of animal origin. To this end, they call on the Commission to revise legislation on labelling and presentation of plant-based products imitating fishery and aquaculture ones.
Confradías and prud’hommies
The members of the Fisheries Committee consider that “cofradías” and “prud’hommies” play such an important role when it comes to allocating fishing quotas and fish conservation that they should be recognised as professional organisations, under the CMO Regulation, so that they have the same responsibilities and are able to qualify for financial support. Therefore, MEPs ask the Commission to adapt the CMO rules in order to include these organisations.
Moreover, they consider that EU countries, in particular those with large small-fisheries fleets and outermost regions, should support - at administrative and financial level - the creation of professional organisations to help implement production and marketing plans.
Market intelligence and crisis management
MEPs believe that market data provided by the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA) should include new categories of fish products increasingly traded in the EU, so the sector can better understand the new trends. They want EU countries to make greater use of it to improve the quality of their data. MEPs also ask for more intuitive and comprehensive digital tools. EUMOFA was developed by the European Commission to increase transparency on the fisheries market in April 2013.
Based on crisis reserve models that exist in other food sectors, MEPs finally ask the Commission to create a crisis reserve to protect the fisheries and aquaculture sector in exceptional situations.
Next steps
The full House is set to vote on the non-legislative resolution in one of the plenary sessions of January 2024.
Context
The CMO is the European Union’s policy for managing the market in fishery and aquaculture products, while ensuring their environmental sustainability and economic viability. It is one of the pillars of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Adopted in 2013, the current CMO regulation took into account certain limitations of the previous rules and the evolution of fishing and aquaculture activities. It put in place the legal framework for producer organisations, marketing standards, consumer information and certification (ecolabels), competition rules as well as market information, such as those provided by the EUMOFA.
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Raquel Ramalho LOPES
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