FISHERY IS NOW AT EU STANDARDS
Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis, in a written statement regarding the new hunting season, highlighted the importance of sustainable fisheries and wished the fishermen a fruitful season.
Emphasizing that eco-friendly and sustainable implementations should not only be considered as a burden of obeying laws, Minister Bagis said "Every person who wish to protect our fish stock and to see the fruitfulness of our seas, must adopt the new implementations."
As the closed season ends, Ministry for EU Affairs and non-governmental organizations are joining forces for ensuring the proper fishing and implementation of eco-friendly fishery techniques.
Even though surrounded by the richest seas in the world, fish stocks in Turkey have been facing a significant decrease in recent years. Many species of fish which once were abundant in our sees, such as mackerel, turbot and grouper are becoming extinct mainly due to the reasons of contamination, overfishing and wrong fishing techniques. Within the framework of "EU-Turkey Civil Society Dialogue-II" programme, the Ministry for EU Affairs is providing financial and technical support to the NGOs which are engaged primarily in designing projects in order to support the use of sustainable fishery methods. Aligning Turkey with EU fisheries policies and standards is one of the priorities of the programme which is funded by the EU allocating a total budget of 2.28 million Euros to the NGOs operating in the fields of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Italian and Turkish Fishermen Throw Cast Nets Together
The Ministry is supporting 6 fishery projects from Turkey and the EU, within the Programme. The common goal of all supported projects is adapting the EU's fishery policy which prioritizes ensuring the balance between the competitive fishery industry, sustainable fish stocks and sea eco-system, to Turkey in the easiest and most realistic way possible. NGOs which have taken action to make sure that these policies are put into practice started to teach Turkish fishermen, together with their European partners, the most successful implementations in the EU. Guzelkent Municipality in Sinop is carrying out a project with a 155 thousand Euros budget together with Italian National Fishery Cooperation Association (LEGA PISCA) and Guzelkent Fishery Cooperation. Within the framework of the project, 250 fishermen, suppliers and sellers are trained on EU fishery standards. Again, Ricerca e Cooperazione from Italy and Aquaculture Association from Seferihisar, İzmir are working together on a 12-month project with a 172 thousand Euros budget to ensure that Turkish fishermen understand and apply the EU standards. The Fishery Cooperative in Sinop Abali Village has founded partners from Lithuania and Romania and started carrying out a project with a 131 thousand Euros budget in order to support the application of fisheries techniques in the Black Sea coasts at the EU standards. The project will provide on the job training for the fishermen of the Abali Village on the EU's sustainable and eco-friendly fisheries policies and applications. It is also seen as an interesting initiative, showing the role of the civil society on the implementation of centralized law amendments on society level.
Implementation of the EU fishery policies means increase in hygiene standards, quality, marketing and the usage of eco-friendly fishery techniques. These implementations, while leading to a significant rise in consumption, also facilitate a larger share from the GDP for the local producers and fishermen implementing the EU standards for sustainable fisheries.
The Programme, implemented by the Ministry, gives local fishermen, producers and fishery association representatives both the chance to visit their colleagues in the EU states and opportunities to mutually share successful implementations and to establish long-term cooperations.
