CFP Reform Watch is soon approaching its second anniversary and it is time to start feeling real proud of ourselves! It all started as an idea on how our personal MEP budgets for information could be used, and then of course we realized that it might be challenging to create a news-site on the Common Fisheries Policy reform that would be perceived as credible and journalistic even if the “sponsors” were from a political party. But then we thought: it has been done before. Many times. Many of the major daily newspapers in the world have started with political parties financing; leaving the news journalists working completely independently, only expressing certain views on the opinion pages.

So this is how we run CFP Reform Watch. We let all voices be heard in the op-eds and in the news section, not only the ones we agree with; and we spread information about as many events as we can, not only the ones we organise. Our underlying mission is primarily one: to create attention and interest in this extremely important reform of the Common Fisheries Policy that has the potential of transforming Europe’s seas from empty blue deserts where occasional algal blooms and jelly fish invasions are the main signs of the remaining life, to living oceans where cod, dogfish, rays, bluefin tuna, porpoises and common skate become common again, and which would let consumers find local fish on the shelves again (mind you  - not watery small pangasius, but beautiful and thick white cod filets, coming from abundant stocks that also fulfill their role as predators in the marine ecosystems!).

We started rather well, with around 300 visitors per week, distributed all over Europe. Now we have regularly some 1 300 unique visitors a week, and when we publish big news stories up to 2 500 visitors from all over the world. But the amount of visitors doesn’t really matter so much, it’s the way that the site is used that really matters, and we are both surprised and humbled by the publications where we have been cited so far: news media such as the Guardian, Le Point and the New York Times, trade journals, in academic papers and in reports used by governments.

It is our privilege to continue producing this site, and in the midst of the reform process our second mission – that of being completely transparent and accessible when it comes to public documents – is equally important.  Through CFP Reform Watch every journalist, researcher, NGO or ordinary citizen shall always be able to find the dates and the agendas of upcoming EU meetings, links to related meeting documents and if things are obscure, we even provide the section on how it all works: Basically the “CFP for dummies”. And please don’t be offended; the fact that only a handful of EU citizens understand how the policy that effects 50 percent of EU territory works is just a sad fact – that we try to remedy by this site.

Please stay tuned, and recommend this site to whoever you think could use it. And don’t hesitate to contact us with ideas or critiques – by email, Twitter or Facebook.

Best regards and hopes for a brighter future for our seas

Isabella Lövin, MEP

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