Foreign Policy in My Opinion,

Foreign Policy

In my opinion, Common Fisheries Policy in the European Union is an example of an ineffective public policy. The policy framers had good intentions but the policy has failed to deliver on its objective. It has instead caused many problems for the European fishing industry than was anticipated (Riley, 2012). At the moment, 30% of the EU fish stocks are beyond safe limits due to the overfishing menace. The policy's quota system has not done any justice to the issue of restoration of fish stocks. The woes that the EU fishing fraternity is currently facing are due to overfishing, fleet overcapacity, heavy subsidies, and decline in the volume of fish caught. The European governments are focusing on protecting the interests of their own fishing businesses instead of coming up with a strategy that redeem the European sea fishing industry as a whole. The Fisheries Policy has failed to enforce agreed fishing quotas (Riley, 2012). This has promoted overfishing. Overfishing is also partly due to absence of enforceable property rights. Members of the EU seem to be inclined to the fact that ownership of natural and renewable resources is common. The policy does not address the issue of dumping of discarded fish because as we speak half of the catch of some fish species are discarded when the vessels exceed their quota or when the fish are deemed to be undersized (Riley, 2012). The policy failure is due to a lot of factors namely political self-interest, policy myopia, regulatory capture, government intervention and disincentive effects, and government intervention and evasion to mention but a few factors. Policy myopia is when politicians come up with quick fixes to address a difficult economic problem like the fishing industry undertakings. These politicians never stop to look at the long-term considerations of the policies they pass (Stone, 1975).

To address the challenges the Common Fisheries Policy in the European Union faces it is imperative that regulations that are passed to ensure such policies achieve their intended objectives are not at odds with the market incentives and cultural practices of the members of the EU (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2000). Compliance with the regulations is likely to be high when a regulation fits well with the existing market practices or when the regulations are supported by cultural norms and civic institutions. To elicit compliance with the fisheries policy in the European Union which is inhabited by people with different cultural practices, the stakeholders should consider partnering with civil society organizations and build support through education. To guarantee success of a regulatory framework in the context of the Common Fisheries Policy in the European Union, prior consultation with target population is imperative. This helps in finding out about factors that are central to the policy implementation. It also helps in securing group support. This helps in building a sense of ownership among the target group. This helps in increasing commitment to the objectives of the policy being rolled out. The regulator, in the process, comes up with better solutions (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2000). To deter overfishing the European Union governments should enhance their capacity to monitor. Monitoring elicits compliance. They should carry out random inspections among the target groups to be sure of the existence of the enforcement. This reduces the chances on non-compliance among the target population like the fishermen in the European waters doing their fishing. They should also consider coming up with deterrent regulations.