European Union’s Public Fishing Access Agreements in Developing Countries

Abstract

The imperative to increase seafood supply while dealing with its overfished local stocks has pushed the European Union (EU) and its Member States to fish in the Exclusive Economic Zones of other countries through various types of fishing agreements for decades. Although European public fishing agreements are commented on regularly and considered to be transparent, this is the first global and historical study on the fee regime that governs them. We find that the EU has subsidized these agreements at an average of 75% of their cost (financial contribution agreed upon in the agreements), while private European business interests paid the equivalent of 1.5% of the value of the fish that was eventually landed. This raises questions of fisheries benefit-sharing and resource-use equity that the EU has the potential to address during the nearly completed reform of its Common Fisheries Policy.

West Africa & the New European Common Fisheries Policy: Impacts & Implications

“…Despite the momentum that surrounded the EU CFP reform process, 157 a preliminary assessment of the major reforms promises little in way of altered relations between Europe and West Africa. While the EMFF reforms and the exclusivity clause indicate potential shifts in the way fisheries relations are negotiated in the region, the overall emphasis of reforms appears unequivocally domestic.…”

“…101 A 1999 IFREMER/CEMARE study estimated that EU vessels gained approximately €3 profit for every €1 spent on bilateral fishing agreements with African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries simply through the processing and marketing of fish caught in those waters. 102 Since fish caught in the West African EEZs cannot meet EU market standards through local processing facilities, fish are shipped to the EU and all revenue from processing and marketing is obtained by European entities. 103 The unabashedly mercantilist slant of this policy is outlined in the European Community publication European Distant Water Fleet: Some Principles and Some Data, which claims that "agreements represent 40,650 jobs, over 83 percent of which depend upon 'southern agreements."…”

“…Millions of dollars in subsidies for fuel, processing, and marketing fish enable tremendous advantages for EU companies, and render the barriers to entry in foreign markets far too strong for competition from developing West African states. 105 Furthermore, these subsidies also have been criticized for enabling unfair advantage within West African waters, by allowing highly efficient EU vessels to outcompete local fishers and decreasing fish availability through high discard rates.…”

Southward re‐distribution of tropical tuna fisheries activity can be explained by technological and management change

“…We focused on two variables, the number of vessels allowed to enter a specific EEZ by SFPA and the total number of SFPAs in the region by quarter. Data until 2012 were obtained from Le Manach et al (), and for 2012 to 2017 from the web‐based sources and agreements/protocols of European databases (European Commission, n.d.; European Union, n.d.). Unfortunately, information on private agreements is not available publicly and we were not able to include it in the analysis.…”

Closing Gaps in National Regulations Against IUU Fishing

“…Financial regulations have a strong potential to affect how IUU fishing develops (Le Gallic, 2008 [57]; Stokke, 2009[67]; OECD, 2013 [25]). Investigations that consider all the many dimensions of economic crimes that can be linked to IUU fishing operations (e.g.…”