EU

Commission to announce next steps in the fight against illegal fishing worldwide

Published

12 years ago

October 13, 2014

The European Commission will adopt a package of measures announcing the next steps in the fight against illegal fishing. As part of its efforts, the EU is taking action against third countries who allow illegal fishing or who are not doing enough to fight it.

Illegal fishing is of great concern: it depletes fish stocks, undermines the livelihood of fishing communities and put honest fishermen at an unfair disadvantage. And it's big business.

The EU is committed to eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) across the world's oceans and ensure that only legally caught fisheries products end up on the plates of European consumers. This is all the more crucial as the EU as the EU imports 2/3 of the fish it consumes.

Since 2012, 'yellow cards' have been issued to 10 third countries (Fiji, Panama, Togo, Vanuatu, Sri Lanka, Korea, Ghana, Curacao, Philippines and Papua New Guinea), warning them that they risk being banned from exporting fisheries products to the EU unless they improve the framework to ensure their products are fished sustainably. Three countries – Guinea, Belize, Cambodia – got a 'red card' in March of this year and were banned from exporting fish into the EU.

The Commission is regularly reviewing the situation and the next update will be on 14 October.

More information

Fisheries website
Website of Commissioner Maria Damanaki
Press Release: Commission warns third countries over insufficient action to fight illegal fishing, November 2012
Press Release: European Commission intensifies the fight against illegal fishing, November 2013