Mr Borg said he would listen to suggestions for reform

Joe Borg, from Malta, said new Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) would give a chance to influence quota-setting.

Industry leaders said they would prefer to manage stocks themselves, but Mr Borg said that was impossible under existing EU legislation.

But he did say he was open to examining changes to the existing system.

The first RAC will be set up for the North Sea shortly.

Stock advice

Speaking after his confirmation hearing before the European Parliament, Mr Borg said the system would allow input into decisions on quotas each December.

He told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "If you had Scottish fishermen who would be taking an active part in the RAC which would directly involve them, that would probably be the North Sea RAC, then that would certainly influence decisions taken by the technical people and it would also influence the position taken by scientists.

Fishermen in the North Sea are facing strict quotas

"The commission has to rely on the advice of scientists and if the scientists have as a counterpart the fishermen themselves who can give them more detailed information regarding the viability of stocks, then the scientific community can come up with a report which is based on more solid evidence.

"That would certainly help us in the decisions that we'll be taking."

Mr Borg said the quota system was likely to remain, but added that there was scope to review it.

He said: "If we see that we can have a system that gives better results then we will go for it."

The Scottish National Party has called for RACs to have more power to take on a management role over fisheries.