European Union has failed to end illicit fishing

In a report published Monday, September 26, the European Court of Auditors considers that member states “must strike stronger” to put an end to unregulated practices.

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In the world, fraud is massive and amounts to millions of tonnes. Between 11 % and 19 % of fish are caught without being declared, without license, without compliance with minimum sizes or quotas, excluding season, with prohibited machines or in prohibited areas, in short outside of any regulation.

The European Union (EU) had undertaken to eliminate these illicit seafood from its markets on the horizon 2 020. “However, it has succeeded,” notes the European Court in a report published Monday, September 26, Who concludes: “Member States must strike stronger”.

Illicit, undeclared and unregulated fishing (INN fishing) constitutes “one of the most serious threats weighing on marine ecosystems”, affirms the courtyard, based in Luxembourg, in the audit which it devotes to the means Set up by the twenty-seven and the European Commission to fight against this scourge.

Globally, it concerns between 10 to 26 million tonnes of catches per year, for a value between 10.4 and 23.9 billion euros approximately, according to Estimates published in Plosone in 2009 and covers in this report. However, this illegal trade ends in particular in the plates of European consumers, first importers in the world of fishing products.

Now illicit practices undermine the efforts made to manage the captures in a sustainable manner and “lead certain stocks on the verge of collapse”, while the fishery resource is already undermined, with 94 % of the populations which are either Overwhelmed be used as much as possible of their capacity.

yellow and red cards against disloyalty

The common fishing policy is the exclusive competence of the European Union: it is up to the member states to give themselves the means to implement it. After immersing himself in the maze of controls and sanctions specific to each of them, Eva Lindström, responsible for this audit carried out in response to a request from the Strasbourg Parliament, concludes that “partial efficiency” which suffers from too much disparity and a certain lack of diligence.

However, the exercise is not simple. The EU imports 60 % of the products of the fishing it consumes, from Norway especially, then from China, Great Britain, Ecuador, Morocco, the United States and Iceland – for 23 billion euros in spending in 2020. But its controls must also apply to its own fleets, whether they are carrying out their campaigns in the Baltic, the Channel, in the Mediterranean or that they track The tuna in the Indian Ocean. With their 79,000 ships, European fleets thus bring 6 % of world production and generate 6.3 billion in revenue per year.