BRUSSELS bureaucrats were accused of "total lunacy" yesterday after it was revealed they plan to bring thousands of Britain's amateur sea anglers under the direct control of the European Parliament.
They have tabled controversial proposals to make recreational anglers subject to the common fisheries policy (CFP), which is already used to police commercial fisheries in the North Sea and Scotland's west coast waters.
The move could result in a
nglers' catches being included in annual discussions over national fish quotas.
There are fears the move could lead to anglers being limited in the number of fish they catch for the pot in a leisure industry that contributes £650 million a year to UK economy.
The proposal is expected to begin its passage through the European Parliament later this month, with a final vote in April.
And yesterday, Struan Stevenson, the Scottish Conservative MEP, pledged to fight the proposals.
He said: "Recreational fishing is a simple pleasure that would become a bureaucratic nightmare if these plans become law. This kind of draconian approach would do very little to assist in the recovery of fish stocks, yet it will cause a great deal of damage to tourism and the whole fishing sport."
He added: "If the European Union is serious about acting to protect fish stocks in the EU, it should launch a fundamental overhaul of the CFP, not target an ancient hobby."
The European Commission's proposals were also condemned by the Angling Trust. Richard Ferre, who chairs its marine committee, said: "Under the commission's plans, all boats from which recreational angling takes place will have to be registered, catches of quota- managed species recorded, and those catches included in quota discussions for each country, and you won't be able to sell what you catch as a sea angler.
"The proposals are ridiculous and unworkable. A million people a year go sea angling at least once and spend about £650 million a year doing it.
"We know that the fish we take out of the sea, in terms of numbers, are tiny in comparison to the total catches which are landed commercially.
"In theory this would require pretty much every boat around the country to be both registered and have its catch recorded, which is just total lunacy."
