The EU’s Regulation on the Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets: International and European Law Perspectives

Abstract

The European Union’s (EU) new Regulation on the sustainable management of external fishing fleets strengthens the framework under which authorisations are granted to EU vessels desiring to fish outside of EU waters. It applies to all such fishing activities, conditions the granting of authorisations on sustainability criteria, and provides a level of institutional control on Member States’ actions, as well as some transparency. It also covers poorly monitored practices, such as reflagging and chartering. However, there have been some missed opportunities, in particular with regard to unregulated high seas fishing and the public accessibility of data on beneficial ownership. More generally, the impact on sustainability of the EU’s stricter measures will depend, in the highly inter-connected world of fisheries, on whether other States also embrace such good governance principles.

DNA Analysis Detects Different Mislabeling Trend by Country in European Cod Fillets

“…EU fishing vessels seeking to fish outside European waters must comply with the sustainable management of external fishing fleets regulation (SMEFF). However, the SMEFF stays silent when it comes to cooperation in the management of unregulated high sea stocks, includes poor monitoring practices (e.g., reflagging and chartering), lacks coherence regarding sustainability criteria, and does not provide public access to data on beneficial ownership [ 54 ]. This undermines the effort on traceability provided by the Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 since any catch locations outside the EU (FAO 67 and certain areas within FAO 27 (e.g., Barents Sea)), falls under the SMEFF regulation.…”

Whose policy coherence counts? Assessing sustainable fisheries in Ghana and the European Union's engagement

“…Research also points to unfair competition between EU and local fleets as per the EU's considerable fisheries subsidies, including exemptions from fuel tax (Antonova, 2016; Hadjimichael, 2018). Other literature and independent research examine the EU's more recent legislative changes including the aforementioned 2017 Regulation (Guggisberg, 2019) and the participation of third countries in IUU fishing (Barnes et al, 2020). Under this legislation, the EU “uses its power as a market State to encourage other fishing entities to take appropriate steps to encourage responsible fishing practices” (Barnes et al, 2020, p. 10).…”

“…Linked to this, the regulation requires all EU vessels over 15 metres long and active in third country waters to be registered with the International Maritime Organization, giving it a unique identifying number that follows the vessel from construction to decommission—no matter what flag it sails under. The regulation represents a key step towards ensuring that the CFP is internally coherent in terms of applying the same principles and objectives to its internal and external aspects (Guggisberg, 2019).…”

“…Recognizing its considerable market responsibility and looking to promote a “level playing sea,” the EU has introduced legislation and reform seeking to promote sustainable fishing both directly and indirectly in and by third countries. This legislation includes efforts to incentivize global action against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing by introducing certification and transparency requirements and a carding system structuring a process of dialogue with and, in extreme cases, sanctioning of trade relations (Barnes et al, 2020; Guggisberg, 2019; Wakefield, 2016). Its legislation is explicitly aimed at influencing behaviour beyond European stakeholders and so contributing to sustainable fishing practices worldwide (European Commission, 2022).…”

Tracking elusive and shifting identities of the global fishing fleet

“…This vessel identity challenge is especially important because of the strong relationship between IUU activity and vessels that recurrently change their name, flag state, or owner (17). While there are legitimate reasons for a vessel to change its identity, vessels with multiple identity changes are more likely to have engaged in IUU fishing (17)(18)(19)(20), and abusive reflagging, or "flag hopping," is one way that operators avoid oversight (12,(21)(22)(23)(24). One solution to tracking changes in identity would be to mandate a unique identifier for each fishing vessel hull, much as merchant vessels are often required to be assigned a unique, seven-digit International Maritime Organization (IMO) number that stays with a vessel even if other aspects of its identity change (25).…”