ABSTRACT
The politics of fishing is capable of generating intense debate and the European Union’s (EU) Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has received a range of criticism from a diverse array of actors. Questions about local communities falling into oblivion, as well as issues of sovereignty over maritime natural resources and sensitivity about state boundaries, have led this policy area to imitate the characteristics of pitched naval battles. Whatever the socio-economic and political costs of the alleged policy failures to local and national communities, the involvement of the European Union adds an important dimension. The key theme of this chapter is that the inherent tensions found in EU policy-making— particularly the difficulties in constructing a consensus for new policy solutions and the problems of implementing community policies—create political compromises which appear to be moving the EU towards a policy impasse.
