Evaluation of the social and economic impacts of the Common Fisheries Policy poses serious challenge
The SOCIOEC project, which officially ended on 28 February 2015, focused on providing a comprehensive analysis of current and emerging management measures relating to the CFP. The project also explored the potential for developing new measures to achieve a more profitable future fishing sector in Europe that provides sustainable employment and contributes to societal well-being for European citizens. SOCIOEC project coordinator Dr Ralf Dӧring, who chaired the event, said: 'The symposium provided an ideal opportunity for stakeholders and partners to discuss both the main findings of the project and the relevant issues that threaten the sustainable development of fisheries and society as a whole in Europe.' The opening introductory session of the symposium set the scene and provided background information on how the SOCIOEC project came about, with keynote presentations from Dr Dӧring, Dr Nikos Zampoukas (the SOCIOEC DG Research & Innovation scientific officer) and Dr Christian Tritten (a member of the SOCIOEC reference advisory board from DG Mare). The first thematic session presented the contribution of the project towards achieving a more integrative impact assessment, addressing the challenging topics of incentives and governance constraints. The keynote presentation was given by Dr Birgit de Vos (Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI), The Netherlands), which was followed by presentations on EU case studies where these concepts have been implemented. The second thematic session focused on the need for improvements in social, economic and integrative impact assessment methodologies. Loretta Malvarosa (NISEA, Italy) gave a keynote on impact assessment, and Dr Gunnar Haraldsson (Institute of Economic Studies (IoES), University of Iceland) provided a keynote on non-EU SOCIOEC case studies in Iceland, New Zealand and Australia. Additional presentations from invited experts focused on management measures and methodology proposals. Leyre Goti, SOCIOEC assistant coordinator, said: 'The evaluation of the social and economic impacts of the fisheries policy presents challenges in terms of relevance, expertise and resources, but it is unavoidable if we really want to grasp the social and economic scope of the policy and make it work'. The final session of the symposium centred on the most important new management measure of the 2014 CFP reform, the landing obligation. Dominic Rihan, from DG Mare, gave a keynote on the implementation of the landing obligation, followed by presentations illustrating the social and economic impacts of the landing obligation as observed by the SOCIOEC partners. Dr Dӧring said: 'The SOCIOEC consortium has brought economists and biologists together to investigate and tackle many issues relating to implementation of the new fisheries policy. The results of the project will be relevant to the development of proposed new measures and incentives that not only counteract the problems of overfishing and compliance but also address the economic and social sustainability of the fishing industry.' Discussions from the symposium will be captured in an event report that will shortly be available on the project website. For more information about the SOCIOEC project, please visit: www.socioec.eu For press queries or to receive an electronic copy of the event report, please contact the project’s communications officer: Christine Shortt, AquaTT (email: christine@aquatt.ie, Tel: +353 1 644 9008) Notes for Editors The SOCIOEC consortium comprised 25 partners from 12 countries. The THÜNEN Institute of Sea Fisheries coordinated the project. AquaTT was the project dissemination partner. The project was funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological development (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement n°289192. Detailed partner profiles are available on request.
Paesi
Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, French Polynesia, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom