There are approximately 32,000 different kinds of fish in the world today. How many can you name? Protecting the biodiversity of our seas and oceans is important for our whole ecosystems and fishing communities. That’s why the European Commission welcomes today’s vote of the European Parliament on the Commission’s proposal for a new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). With this vote the Parliament is paving the way for negotiations with the Council on a new policy based on sustainable fishing, and introducing a discard ban to put an end to wasteful practices that we can no longer afford.

Europe’s fisheries policy is in urgent need of reform. Vessels are catching fish quicker than they can reproduce, exhausting individual fish stocks and threatening the marine ecosystem. By bringing fish stocks back to sustainable levels, the new CFP aims to provide EU citizens with a stable, secure and healthy food supply for the long term.

To know more about the CFP visit http://bit.ly/knFneE
To discover more about the CFP reform see http://bit.ly/gAXJ2
See facts and figures of the CFP http://bit.ly/d2P9VU