THE ECS COMMON FISHERIES POLICY IN THE 1990S

This article discusses the development of the European Community's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in the early 1990s. The analytical framework used for the study of national ocean policy relating in particular to the fisheries sector, is introduced first. Then, the origin and evolution of the CFP between 1958 and 1986 are examined, serving as the background of the CFP. The shortcomings and failures of the CFP as recognized by the end of the CFP 's first 10 years (1983-1992) are highlighted. The reform of the CFP, which was carried out in 1992, and the outputs resulting from the reform, such as the establishment of a Community control system for the entire fishing sector in 1993, are addressed. The relationship between the CFP and EC integration are also examined. The article suggests that trends in the international system and other states' fisheries policies, in particular the development of the legal regime of a 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the extension of fishing limits to 200 miles by almost all non-EC countries of the Northeast Atlantic in the second half of the 1970s, as well as the EC Member States' domestic concerns regarding the development of their own fishing industries, help explain the establishment of a CFP and the integration of fisheries management responsibilities. Although the EC's CFP had been and will always be influenced by both the external and internal policy input variables, it will also have an impact on the development of the international fisheries management regime, as well as other coastal states' fisheries policies.