Fishing: action plan for the eradication of illegal, undeclarated and unregulated fishing

The committee adopted the report by Niels BUSK (ELDR, DK) welcoming the action plan presented by the Commission and making a number of recommendations. In particular, it called on the Commission to: - submit a detailed report to Parliament on experience gained from the east Atlantic; - ensure that regional fisheries organisations keep a scoreboard of the contracting parties' follow-up action on breaches of the rules governing the conservation and management of fish resources; - propose amendments to the Control Regulation to ensure that all vessels entering EU ports or sailing in EU waters, whether or not they fly an EU flag, are marked according to the FAO guidelines for the marking and identification of fishing vessels; - give priority, when concluding future agreements with third countries, to providing aid for implementation by those countries of the FAO's international action plan for combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; - ensure that EU coastal and port states meet FAO good conduct standards; - extend the use of catch certificates, which are easily recognisable and difficult to forge. The committee also called on the EU to close all of its ports to fishing vessels flying flags of convenience, vessels engaged in IUU fishing and fish transport vessels that have transshipped cargo from such vessels. �