Common rules with a view to the application of the external dimension of the CFP, including fisheries agreements

The European Parliament adopted by 640 votes to 26, with 12 abstentions, a resolution on common rules in respect of application of the external dimension of the common fishieries policy (CFP), including fisheries agreements.

World’s main fishing players: the EU is one of the world’s main fishing players, with its network of bilateral fisheries agreements, its outermost regions, and its participation in all of the major regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs).

The EU is a major market for fishery products and the largest importer of such products, consuming 11 % of the world’s fish production, even though it only accounts for 8 % of the world’s catch. The EU has an extensive processing industry with a significant social dimension which must be protected.

Members considered that: (i) the sustainable management of global fish stocks must inevitably involve multilateralism and international cooperation, including bilateral cooperation; (ii) the EU has a key role to play in global governance of the seas and oceans; (iii) the CFP must be based on an ambitious vision that is coherent with the internal dimension.

In this regard, Parliament welcomed the inclusion in the basic regulation on the CFP, for the first time, of a chapter referring to the external dimension and stressed the importance of ensuring consistency between fishery, environmental and trade policy and development cooperation.

Sustainable fisheries: Parliament insisted that the promotion, by the EU and the partners with whom it has bilateral and other agreements, of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable fisheries based on transparency and the participation of non-governmental stakeholders, especially professionals who depend on fishing for their livelihoods, is essential in order to secure a future for coastal communities and the marine environment. They insisted on the importance of promoting ecosystem protection and maintaining fish stocks above levels capable of producing the maximum sustainable yield.

In its external fishery-related activities (catching, processing and marketing), the EU must promote its highest environmental and social standards and implement rigorous and effective control and inspection measures, while ensuring transparency in all its activities, so as to ensure fair competition on the EU market.

Members insisted on better linkage between the sectoral support provided under fishing agreements and the instruments available within the scope of cooperation on development, specifically the European Development Fund (EDF), and for full transparency in the funding of fisheries projects and the use of sectoral support, so as to ensure the proper use of EU funds.

Better scientific data: Parliament reiterated the need for better scientific information on the status of resources and catch/effort data for fishing outside EU waters, especially in the waters of certain developing coastal states, with funds available under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the European Development Fund being used for that purpose. It stressed the importance of independent ex-post evaluations concerning the effectiveness of fisheries partnership agreements (FPA) and called for the expansion of independent observer programmes that contribute to the monitoring of fisheries and the collection of scientific data.

Regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs): Members called on the Commission to allocate greater funding to RFMOs, since they have a crucial role to play in combating illegal, undeclared and unregulated (IUU) fishing. They also urged the EU to use its influence to ensure that all fisheries with a regional dimension are managed by an RFMO.

Members called on the EU to utilise its network of SFPAs and negotiations in RFMOs to ensure that the partner countries limit access by all distant-water fleets to surplus stocks, as required by UNCLOS and the CFP, and as the EU does, and to provide preferential access to fleets using the most environmentally and socially sustainable practices for the region and stocks concerned.

Developing countries: Parliament emphasised the need to promote local development by means of sectoral support, by increasing the empowerment of partner countries' fisheries through, in particular, strengthening sustainable aquaculture, developing and conserving artisanal fishing. European investments in third countries’ fisheries under the guise of joint ventures must be covered by the CFP. Moreover, the importance of involving women throughout the value chain, from financing through to the processing and/or marketing of fish products is emphasised.

Employment and working conditions: Parliament recognised the importance of the external dimension of the CFP in creating employment in both the EU and our partner countries, including through the hiring of local crew in the context of SFPAs. It called for instruments to protect workers and decent working conditions to be included in European regulations on fishing matters and in SFPAs in order to guarantee the same working conditions, remuneration, protection of workers' rights and levels of training for EU and other nationals.

Transparency: the Commission is called upon to improve transparency by setting up a database covering all private agreements between or on behalf of EU ship-owners and local or regional bodies or authorities or third countries that involve access to third-country fisheries, including conditions for access, allowable fleet capacity, the identity of the vessels and the resulting fishing activities, and that this database should be in the public domain, with the exception of those parts which contain commercially sensitive information.

Vessels fishing under the provisions of an SFPA but which do not fulfil their obligations, such as that of supplying their Member State with the data required under the terms of their fishing authorisation, should be subject to the penalties provided for in the Control Regulation and the IUU Regulation, including, where appropriate, denial of a fishing authorisation.

Vessel reflagging: Parliament welcomed the recent publication of the names of EU-flagged vessels granted authorisation to fish outside EU waters, and insisted that the Commission publish such information as a matter of course, including data on their activities and catches.

The basic regulation includes a provision requiring vessels that leave and subsequently return to the EU register to provide information on their activities before their return. Parliament considered that this requirement should be strengthened such that a vessel’s complete flagging history must be submitted to the Commission and included in the Community Fishing Fleet Register database prior to the vessel’s acceptance in the register.

Members promoted the development of a unique international system for registering all vessels sailing in international waters.

Traceability of products: Parliament emphasised that stainable fisheries partnership agreements should also ensure the complete traceability of marine fisheries product. It stated that the economic, social and environmental conditions prevailing in the collection and processing of fish should be clear to consumers.

Mediterranean fishing: Members noted that, despite the role played by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), differences in the rules applied to EU and third‑country fleets operating in the same fisheries have been causing considerable problems for EU fishermen. They considered that the EU has a role to play in the resolution of conflicts between vessels in the Mediterranean, and asked the Commission to consider supporting and assisting fishermen who are frequently subject to confrontations with third-country vessels, and to establish closer cooperation with countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean.