Spanish fishermen could end up in control of the North Sea under new rules being thrashed out in Brussels.
This is the warning from Scots Euro MP Struan Stevenson ahead of the imminent reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Mr Stevenson, senior vice president of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee, fears the reform will drive through amendments that will transfer traditional Scottish fishing rights to foreign ownership.
He believes that 139 proposed amendments to the CFP Green Paper to be voted through in a special plenary session in Brussels today (February 24) will open the door to a takeover by wealthy foreign fishing concerns.
One amendment specifically states that “access to fish stocks should no longer be based solely on the criterion of historical catches.”
Mr Stevensontold Hebrides news Today:
“I believe that this is a potentially explosive alteration to the current rules which allocates fishing rights based on historical track records, providing evidence that generations of Scottish fishermen have fished in a particular area.
“If this rule is changed, Spanish fishermen could argue that they have equal access rights to our traditional fishing grounds in the North Sea and West of Scotland.”
Another amendment calls on the European Commission to look at the adoption of new fisheries management models including “the use of transferable fishing rights.
“While I am all for reforming the CFP, which has been a catastrophe for our fishing sector since its inception, I am determined to ensure that we don’t open the door to a bargain basement sale of Scotland’s fishing heritage.
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