EU agrees to keep fishing quota system despite doubts

(BRUSSELS) - EU nations agreed on Monday to maintain the bloc's existing fishing quotas despite its flaws and frequent criticism.

However, EU fisheries ministers, meeting in Brussels, were divided over whether the system should be liberalised in order to create a market where fishing rights could be traded.

"A heated debate was held over the creation of a market for individual quotas at the European level," acknowledged French Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Currently, EU fishing quotas are state managed, divvied up each year among member states according to the fish stocks judged to be available.

Individual governments then hand out fishing rights to collective fishing organisations to share out.

However, in Australia, Iceland, New Zealand and Norway quotas are allocated to fishermen themselves, and can then be traded on a private market.

Proponents of a market system argue that it encourages fishermen to take responsibility for managing fish stocks because they have an interest in being able to sell their fishing rights at the best possible price.

Paris for one, always wary of handing power over to markets, is opposed to the idea, fearing that it could lead to "a concentration of companies with the biggest buying out the least powerful," Barnier said.

Denmark and The Netherlands on the other hand are in favour and Spain is open to the idea.

Meeting of EU Fisheries Ministers