The EU Parliament called for a special plan to protect the EU's tuna industry, including both the fleet and the canning sector. MEPs endorsed an own-initiative report by Daniel Varela Suánzes (EPP-ED, E), which warns that EU policy is harming the industry, a tendency they want to see reversed.
The European Parliament (EP) plenary session held Wednesday requested specific measures to support communitarian tuna fleet and industry and protect them from the competition from third countries.
According to the report, for the past years, communitarian companies have made great investments in third countries, mainly in Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean.
In particular, the EU Parliament argues that tuna products from third-countries should be required to meet the same food quality and health standards applied to Community produce and is therefore advocating the tightening up of the inspections regime. It is also calling for a review of Community customs legislation, in the wake of tariff quotas awarded to Southeast Asian countries seen as damaging to EU interests. Spain, France, and Italy have important canning sectors.
The report also calls for better conservation in international waters managed by Regional Fisheries Organizations (RFOs), where stocks are particularly vulnerable to illegal fishing. Members call on the EU to take the initiative in RFOs to adapt fleet capacity to available resources, by banning all vessels that do not comply with the relevant rules. They also want to see a new unit created in DG Fish to deal with tuna, with "sufficient staff and economic resources".
Tuna is currently the world's most commercially valuable fish species. At present, the canning industry directly employs 40,000 people in the EU and the market for tuna products is enjoying buoyant growth. Moreover, the EU has the world's largest tuna fleet by capacity, with average catches of 350.000 tons a year. The communitarian purse seining fleet consists of 67 vessels, of which 39 are Spanish and 28 French.