Europe’s fishing industry is on the brink of suicide and several species are in danger of extinction after 25 years of policy failure,the European Commission said yesterday.

Officials admitted five key failings in the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy as they prepared to tear up the idea of a centrally dictated strategy. They launched the search for an alternative, saying that much of the responsibility for fishing must be returned to EU member states.

One key failing that has led to the near-extinction of stocks of cod, bluefin tuna and anchovy is the “deep-rooted problem” of fleet overcapacity, with campaign groups arguing for a 40 per cent cut in the EU’s 90,000 vessels. Its admission that Europe’s controversial fisheries policy had failed was broadly welcomed by the fishing industry.

The Commission said that 88 per cent of EU stocks were overfished, compared with only 25 per cent worldwide.

“Most of Europe’s fishing fleets are either running losses or returning low profits,” said Joe Borg, the EU Fisheries Commissioner, in a Green Paper published yesterday. “There is chronic overcapacity, of which overfishing is both a cause and a consequence — fleets have the power to fish much more than can safely be removed without jeopardising the future productivity of stocks.”

He said that cuts in fleets of only 2 to 3 per cent a year had been offset by increases in catching capacity.

Ministers from individual EU states were given much of the blame in the Green Paper. They meet every December to set fish quotas and every year they override expert scientific advice, which, for example, has been calling for cod fishing to be closed in the North Sea to allow it to recover.

Last year 93 per cent of cod was caught before the fish were mature enough to reproduce. But a higher cod quota was set for this year, under pressure from member states.

“Sustained political and economic pressure has led industry and member states to request countless derogations, exceptions and specific measures,” the Green Paper stated.

Many EU fishermen then receive subsidies to help them to stay in business — for instance, those involved in the anchovy grounds that have been closed to save the species. “European citizens almost pay for their fish twice: once at the shop and once again through their taxes,” said the Paper.

One of the most senior European Commission fisheries officials added: “The sector is overfishing and, if you like, committing suicide.”

Spain has the biggest fleet in terms of tonnage, but its 11,350 boats are still outmatched by Greece, which has 17,350, and Italy with 13,700. France, which traditionally is at the forefront of industrial action against EU fishing restrictions, has almost 8,000 boats.

Britain has 6,763 fishing vessels, according to an official survey in 2007, compared with 8,458 ten years earlier.

The EU consultation, which will run to the end of the year, will be followed by studies next year, but it will be 2011 or 2012 before decisions must be taken.

Campaigners called for the politicians to be taken out of detailed quota-setting. “Cod in Newfoundland never came back after it was fished to extinction and bluefin tuna is going the same way ,” said Julie Cator, of Oceana, a marine conservation organisation. “We cannot keep fishing down the ecological chain until we are left with jellyfish.”

Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said: “Reform is very necessary indeed — by anyone’s standards the Common Fisheries Policy has failed.”

Richard Lochhead, Scotland’s Fisheries Minister, said: “Those who are best placed to protect our precious fishing stocks are those with the greatest interest in them. Therefore, it is fundamentally wrong for landlocked member states, and others with no interest in crucial Scottish fisheries, to have a decisive say over how that resource is managed.”

Aaron McLoughlin, head of the European Marine Programme at WWF, said: “The Commission have produced an admirably honest critique of a dysfunctional fisheries policy.” He said the successful fisheries of Alaska, New Zealand and Norway, based on long-term management plans for fish stocks and cuts in fleet capacity, could be copied in Europe.

Times Recommends

• Should Knox’s trial even have reached the courtroom?
• 'Was it real?' The US bailout nightmare
• Iranian opposition plays the long game