Management of the EU external fishing fleet

Background

In December 2015 the European Commission proposed a revised system for issuing and managing fishing authorisations, intended to improve monitoring and transparency of the EU external fishing fleet.

The proposal, replacing the 'Fishing Authorisations Regulation' 1006/2008, would apply to all EU vessels fishing outside EU waters, and to third-country vessels fishing in EU waters. The current scope of the authorisation system would be extended to include practices which have been poorly monitored so far, such as private agreements between EU companies and third countries and abusive reflagging operations. Member States would authorise fishing vessels using common eligibility criteria, complemented by specific conditions depending on the nature of the authorisation. Part of the electronic fishing authorisations register, showing who fishes what and where, would for the first time be publicly accessible.

After three political trilogue meetings in 2017, the European Parliament and the Council reached provisional agreement on the 20 June 2017 on the future regulation. The European Parliament was due to be asked to approve in plenary the agreement made in trialogue.

During the December 2017 plenary session, the European Parliament was expected to vote at second reading on a European Commission proposal to revise the EU system of issuing and managing fishing authorisations. The aim was to improve monitoring and transparency of the EU external fishing fleet, wherever it operates.

Author: Irina Popescu