The run up to the review of the European Union's (EU's) Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in 2002 affords a timely opportunity to examine the impact of one lobby -the environmental lobby-on its operations.
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The conventional view of the CFP is that it is driven primarily by economic objectives, and that environmental considerations take a back seat. The CFP is broadly concerned with maximizing output, employment and income from the fishery within the constraints imposed by the biological state of the stocks.
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However, there are indications that this picture is changing and that the CFP is beginning to take account of the environment. Some of the credit for this change must go to Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) which have recently been campaigning heavily for more effective management of commercial fishing. But the success that they have had so far appears to be mainly confined to single issues, such as the drift-net ban.
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In the bigger battle, for protection of the entire marine ecosystem against the damage caused by fishing, ENGOs have yet to achieve a significant breakthrough, though there are some signs that the tide is slowly turning in their favour on this wider issue.