Speech before the the European Parliament, 22 June 2010

Members of the European Parliament

Thank you for inviting me to this dialogue. I regularly meet with Norwegian parliamentarians, but this invitation gives me a unique opportunity to talk directly to you here in Brussels, the capital of Europe. It took a while before I was finally able to make it, but I have been looking forward to this meeting. It will be of great interest to me to hear the reactions and comments of the members of the Fisheries Committee.

Although I was appointed Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs in October 2009,  I have been involved with fisheries and aquaculture policies for most of my adult life. I live on the coast and my experience is from fish farming. During the last two decades, I have been a representative of private enterprises, as well as a political advisor and State Secretary of the goverment.  As  appointed  Minister, I now have the authority and means  to take  political measures  to strengthen the maritime industries.

At  home, not far away from the Arctic Circle, there is great potential in marine resources. We make our living from fishing, fish farming and other maritime industries. In my home municipality, there are just 1,594 inhabitants spread across 1,250 km2. Every new job is therefore welcome and means that we can continue to develop and live along the coast.
There are many coastal communities, large and small, both in Norway and in the EU Member States, that depend entirely on the resources of the sea. In this respect,  we face a common challenge. As representatives of the European fisheries and aquaculture policy community, you contribute actively to focused  EU decisions in this area.

Seen from my point of vantage it is very apparent  that   Norway and the EU, however large our differences may be, are closely interlinked  in most areas. For this reason, I am especially pleased to be gathered  with you today.

Like all other industries, the seafood industry depends on stable framework conditions, such that companies can operate profitably within predictable parameters. We therefore need cater for a modern, forward-looking and profitable fishing fleet. At the same time,  wild capture fisheries and fish farming  must be  sustainable. We have to  to manage the resources properly, to ensure a sound basis for value creation and  production of high-quality seafood.

I would like to talk a little more about seafood. Because  seafood is, first and foremost,  food of  high value, as you well know,  coming from the world’s largest market for seafood. We all want healthy and safe food, and, not least, appetising food. Seafood is a marvellous source of important nutrients. Everybody knows  that eating fish is good for your health. There is ample research and dietary advice to support this. But we also need to get this message across  to the general public.

As  trade in fish and other seafood increases, we also need to deal decisively with  new challenges . Until fairly recently there were calls for almost unlimited growth in aquaculture.  But food also needs to be produced sustainably, and this poses  a number of serious challenges. We don’t want production  to have an unacceptable footprint  on nature. And we need to define the limits for what is acceptable.

Consumers today are increasingly concerned about whether the fish on their plates have come from sustainable fisheries. They are concerned about how the fish is  caught and how the resulting products are transported, packed and labelled. The demand for eco-labelled fish is increasing. This presents us with a number of new challenges and opportunities. Surely, it cannot  be  up to pressure groups alone to decide this?  The interests of the consumers  must be protected, and this can best be done in the international forums that deal with such matters. In sum, we need to ensure that the trade in seafood contributes to promoting sustainability and environmental objectives.

We also need to be ready to take a critical look at the seafood industry’s energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. We must take political responsibility for promoting climate-friendly food production and trade. We need to look afresh at our trading systems, and ask   whether  the current trade policy regimes contribute to a pattern of trade that minimises carbon footprints.

Production growth  – whether on land or at sea – must be within  safe environmental limits. An environmentally sustainable production is therefore a prerequisite for long-term growth and development in fish farming. Recognition of this fact is also being reflected more explicitly in EU and Norwegian aquaculture policies.

Last   year , the Norwegian Government presented its strategy for an environmentally sustainable aquaculture industry. This strategy highlights major factors that  must be taken into account:
- how escapes of farmed fish affect the genetic diversity of wild fish,
- pollution and emissions,
- trends in disease,
- coastal area planning (zoning), and
- how the harvesting of feed resources used in aquaculture affects stocks of wild fish
 
As a step towards implementing the goals and initiatives of this strategy, we are now in the process of establishing special indicators to verify and ensure that we are on the right track. Key questions include:
• How to ensure a further reduction in escapes from fish farms?
• What is an acceptable level of intermixture  of farmed  and  wild salmon in the rivers where wild salmon spawns?
• How  to combat salmon parasites/lice without impacting unfavourably on the environment?
• How can we ensure that fish feed used in aquaculture is only taken  from fish stocks that are sustainably managed?

These are important questions that  requires careful  attention and considerable effort. I hope we can discuss these issues, and cooperate to find  viable solutions at an international level.

The EU is a major importer of seafood. At the same time, Norway  produces more than we can  consume by ourselves. We ship safe, high-quality and nutritious food to consumers in around 150 countries worldwide. Globally, 29 million meals that originate  from the Norwegian seafood industry are eaten every single day.

Much of this output goes to our primary market, the EU.

Norwegian seafood is safe because we have a long coastline of clean cold seas and because our food-safety rules are harmonized with those of the EU. For example, farmed fish is closely monitored and no traces of non-approved medicines or traces of approved medicines in excess of minimum accepted levels have been found. 

Every month, around   2,000 semi-trailer truckloads of fish are destined  to go to  EU countries. Annually, this amounts to around 600,000 tonnes of salmon and about the same quantity of wild-caught fish. Around 60 per cent of our seafood exports by value go to the EU. So how can it be  that we are able to export all  this  seafood?

I dare to say  that this is because we take fisheries management seriously.

A good management system comprises an holistic approach of  the ecosystems. This includes all  living marine resources, and marine mammals also have a role to play here. I am well aware that we have fundamentally different views on the harvesting of whales and seals. Nonetheless, I believe we have a responsibility  as resource managers to discuss these issues on a factual and scientific basis, without being distracted by emotions. The EU’s  prohibition of  trade in seal products is not something we can endorse. For northern peoples, it is only natural that  all of the sea’s resources – including marine mammals – should be utilized. Our opposition to this measure is therefore firm – it is all about fundamental principles of ecosystem-based resource management. We will continue to harvest the sea’s resources as long as it is done scientifically and sustainably.

Let me  return to the issue of taking fisheries management seriously. We have been through a long and tough times, in which overcapacity and large-scale subsidies posed  serious obstacles, undermining the fishing industry’s resource base.  There were far too many boats fishing far too few fish. We therefore needed to implement measures to combat overcapacity and cater for  a better management system.

Norway manages more than 80 per cent of the fish resources caught in our waters in together  with other countries. In the North, we cooperate with Russia and in the South with the EU.

Over the last 30 years, the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission has developed  into a tightly knit partnership. This has been built on mutual trust and a common understanding of key issues.
The stocks in the Barents Sea are showing a very positive trend. The most recent  quota recommendations from ICES, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, indicate in excess of more than  1 million tonnes of cod and haddock. The cod stock  in the Barents Sea is  the largest in the world. This should indicate  that we must have gotten something  right in  the North.

In terms of fisheries policy, Norway and the EU are bonded by destiny through our shared geography.  We manage common fish resources and  need to agree on common management solutions. Norway relies  upon the EU to manage its resources  in a rational manner. And vice versa; the EU is dependent upon Norway to manage it’s  fisheries resources soundly. 

In recent years, Norway and the EU have developed a very close cooperation , which I believe  has been beneficial to both sides. But I will not hide the fact that  we faced difficulties last year . The EU’s breach of the fisheries agreement last autumn put our cooperation to a hard test.

We need to perceive each other as partners, not as adversaries and to act accordingly.

The annual fisheries agreements are complex and include a range of factors that cannot be separated from the fixing  of total allowable quotas. This includes  management plans, technical regulations and measures against discards that, coupled with the catch limits, constitute a system of comprehensive  resource management. It is therefore highly important that the we  continue our broadly based  fisheries cooperation, and hopefully also extend it in the direction of a more harmonised regulatory framework. 

Fisheries management is real time management. Norway and the EU must therefore choose administrative solutions that make it possible  to deal rapidly with any situation  that arises.
I cannot emphasise strongly enough the importance that Norway places on reducing discards. Discards are quite simply a waste of valuable food-resources and results in a total lack of data  of how much fish is taken from the sea. This weakens the scientific basis for stock assessment  and hence the scientific  advice for catch levels. A fisheries policy which is based on the compulsory  discarding of fish can never be sustainable. We have  agreed  on measures to reduce the level of discards in the North Sea. This is a step in the right direction, and I would like to urge you to go the full distance and introduce a full scale,  explicit ban on discarding as soon as possible.

I have noted that the European Parliament has played an active role in the discussions on the reform of the common fisheries policy now underway. In this process, you have  been asked to respond to a number of important and difficult questions. Will a continuation of the current policy contribute to a reduction in overfishing, larger stocks and better profitability for the industry? Will the Europeans of tomorrow  accept that large scale public funds are being used  to sustain an industry that, with the right framework conditions, could perfectly well stand on its own two feet?
We know from experience that the future adaptation the European fishing industry needs  to undergo will not be easy. Good fisheries management is a long-term project and the benefits of a difficult reform may be unevenly distributed. The challenge is recognize that changes are necessary , and perseverance is crucial for a good outcome.

The main problem has been, and remains, overcapacity. Fish resources are renewable, but definitely not unlimited. To ensure profitability and sustainability, there must be a good balance  between what the sea can sustain  and how many boats that  harvest the resources. There are many means to control  overcapacity , and the industry  can to this by itself, provided that  the authorities lay the groundwork.

The EU Green Book presented last year is comprehensive and deals with many of the key factors for modern fisheries management. I would be the first to emphasise that the framework conditions, traditions and challenges we face are different. And it is by no means certain that the solutions we have chosen in Norway would fit  the EU.

However,  we must solve the same fundamental problems. It is about long-term, sustainable management. It is about reducing overcapacity which is stifling the opportunities for profitable fishing vessels.   And it’s about building an industry that can stand on its own two feet and  to  harvesting the resources of the community in a responsible and ethical manner.

I am quite sure  that the reform will be a difficult exercise. But, with fish stocks being fished too hard and a fishing fleet in excess of  what available  resources can justify, are there really any alternatives? 

We have experienced  some of the same  processes of adaptation  in the Norwegian fishing industry and we know that it is possible to succeed. I  hope that some of the ideas and models which we have provided  in our response to the Green Book may be useful  as you proceed with the reform process. And I hope that you have the courage to set yourselves ambitious objectives that will help bring about real  improvements.

The European Parliament – and the Fisheries Committee in particular – plays an important role in the development of the  fisheries policy of the EU.  You are engaged  and committed and wish to shape our common future. The European Parliament’s contribution to formulation of EU fisheries policy is therefore important to Norway. For this very reason it is my wish that we engage in strengthened dialogue. I am here to listen to what you have to say – and I also hope that the views I have shared with you will be of use to you .

The Parliament’s Fisheries Committee visited Norway in 2008.  From what I have heard, that visit was both interesting and highly useful. I believe that  time is ripe  to once again invite you up  North. Let us try to find a suitable time during  2011 . I can assure you that we will come up with a programme to both inspire and perhaps also challenge you. Even though we are on good terms with Mother Nature, and try to provide for  good weather and a nice midnight sun,  it might be useful  to bring a raincoat and wellington boots.

Thank you for your attention.