In the six years since its introduction, the EU’s Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUU) Regulation has proved to be a powerful tool in establishing effective fisheries governance, particularly with regard to increasing the number of third-countries adhering to international rules, and yet it cannot put an end to illegal fishing practices unassisted, the European Commission (EC) warned this week.
The annual cost of IUU is estimated by the EC to be between EUR 10 billion (USD 11.1 billion) and EUR 18 billion (USD 20.1 billion), involving between 11 and 26 million metric tons (MT) of seafood products, and in his keynote address at the 9th International Forum on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing in London, Joao Aguiar Machedo, director general of fisheries and maritime affairs at the EC, assured delegates that the EU is committed to eradicating such practices on a global scale.
“It is taking strong and structured action toward this goal,” said Machedo. “The IUU Regulation is a success story and this has been recognized by many. There is a real understanding about what IUU fishing is and more and more countries are joining us in the fight against this scourge.”
Machedo said EU member states have played an important role in fighting IUU fishing, not just in controlling the activities of their fleets and nationals, but also in controlling fishery products as they are imported into the EU market. He added that the information exchange and good cooperation between Commission and member states was also “critical” when it comes to the dialogue process with third-countries.
“This is where the EU IUU Regulation becomes the most visible – identifying non-cooperating third-countries.
“For the past six years, the Commission has actively cooperated with more than 50 countries to fight IUU fishing. With some countries that cooperation was initially difficult and the dialogue needed to be formalized through the so-called ‘yellow cards.’ To date, 20 countries have been pre-identified in this way; the latest being Comoros and Taiwan in October 2015.”
He said the yellow cards provide a framework for the Commission to work with the third-country in question and stressed that it’s “never the objective” to sanction the country; instead, the aim is to help those third-countries identify their shortcomings and place clearly defined objectives.
“When we see significant progress, the Commission has dialogue to lift the pre-identification status.”
Machedo highlighted that this green carding has so far happened in the case of eight countries: Fiji, Panama, Togo and Vanuatu in October 2014. Korea and the Philippines in April 2015 and Ghana and Papua New Guinea in October 2015.
“But if there isn’t tangible progress from the pre-identified country, the Commission moves them on to the next level, which is the identification as a non-cooperating country and the process that leads to the red card. This implies trade measures for the country concerned, which, depending on the nation involved, can lead to a big loss of revenue. Even within this measure, our cooperation continues to try to resolve the shortcomings.”
He confirmed that to date, the EC has only had to issue a red card to four countries: Belize, Guinea, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, although Belize “reacted very quickly,” taking sufficient action for the red card to be rescinded in December 2014.
“Despite this success, it should go without saying that the EU cannot resolve all the IUU-related problems around the world. We need to collaborate with likeminded countries and indeed we signed joint statements to cooperate on IUU fishing with the United States in 2011 and Japan in 2012. We have also established working groups with the United States, Japan and China.”
Talks are ongoing with other key countries to establish additional working groups, which Machedo believes will “contribute to the multilateral DNA” of the Commission’s anti-IUU work.
“To have strong voices speaking up against IUU fishing at a regional level we will work with and support our partners in proposing regional solutions to fight IUU fishing. And let’s not forget that the EU IUU Regulation is limited in scope; so international tools to fight IUU fishing are also critical.”
Machedo is particularly keen to see the implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) that would aim to prevent illegal fishing through the implementation of robust port state measures. Despite being adopted by the FAO Conference in 2009, the PSMA still hasn’t received the required acceptance level of 25 countries to enable it to enter into force.
There is, though, growing support for the agreement, with the latest ratification coming from the United States last week.
“A year ago, only 11 countries had ratified it, but in the past 12 months a further 9 countries have come on board, meaning we only need five more countries. We urgently need this tool to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing through robust port state measures.”
He urged forum delegates to encourage those countries who have not yet done so to ratify the agreement.
In the meantime, following a recent review of the implementation of its IUU Regulation, the Commission will conduct some fine-tuning, revealed Machedo.
“We have no plans right now to amend the regulation, but after implementing it for six years, we have realized there is room for improvement and that’s what we will be doing. We will be working to automate some of the systems that are in place, to make implementation simpler and more cost-effective. These changes will increase traceability and protect the system from document fraud.
“Externally, we will continue our bilateral cooperation and dialogue with non-EU countries to correct IUU fishing problems. We will also promote and support multilateral actions that address IUU fishing, in particular mandatory unique vessel identification numbers and global catch documentation.
“To summarize, our track record is good. The EU IUU Regulation has done a lot to fight IUU fishing and as a result we have improved the sustainability of fish coming into the EU market and created a level playing field for honest operators. But we should not rest on our laurels; there is more that can be done. We must keep on improving, learning from our experiences and our errors and building on our successes at EU, regional and international levels,” he said.
