Studies in the Field of the CFP and Maritime Affairs No. FISH/2006/09. Lot 4: Impact assessment studies related to the CFP. Technical analysis (phase 1) of the Impact Assessment for the CFP 2012 reform

The objective of this study was to produce the STATUS QUO impact assessment of the revision of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), focussing on three major dimensions – environmental, economic and social – with additional considerations in terms of governance, administrative burden and simplification.

The following tasks were defined in the TORs:

• Collate baseline (state of the art) recent data/trends (e.g. 5-10 years) and information relevant to the examination of the CFP;
• Analyse the institutional/decision-making process, both the formal arrangements and the actual reality, against current objectives of the CFP (i.e. desired and non-desired outcomes);
• Examine likely changes and quality of recent policy initiatives, or new policy initiatives entering into force before the 2012 reform;
• Using outputs from the first stages for the main CFP policy areas, define indicators and set up an analytical framework to analyse impacts of the STATUS QUO scenario; 
• Examine the possible impacts of pursuing the STATUS QUO scenario, over a ten-year horizon, 2012-2017-2022; and
• Prepare a summary of results and Report writing.

MRAG were the consortium leaders on this project and looked specifically at the environmental and management effectiveness, institutional process, and modeling and stock assessment aspects.