Brussels, 14/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The “induced economic effects” of the fisheries agreement between the EU and Cape Verde are “substantial overall because of high catches”. This was highlighted in a study, published on 13 November, evaluating the agreement.
The current protocol covers the period from 1 September 2011 to 31 August 2014. The annual financial contribution amounts to €435,000. The Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) allows up to 28 EU tuna purse seiners (16 Spanish and 12 French), 35 EU surface longliners (26 Spanish and 9 Portuguese) and 11 pole and line vessels (seven Spanish and four French) to fish in Cape Verdean waters.
According to the evaluation report, the operating account of the purse seiner and longliner fleets is “positive”. Of the €3.4 million of added value created for the 16 months that the protocol has been implemented (equating to €2.1 million weighted annual average), 71% goes to the EU, 17% to Cape Verde through access rights, crew and transhipments in the port of Mindelo and 13% to the other ACP countries in Western Africa because of landings, transhipments and supplies in the ports of Abidjan and Dakar. “Cape Verde benefits very little from the economic activity generated by the EU vessels in its EEZ as no fish are landed”, the report underlines.
The report show that, in 2011 (1 September to 31 December), the uptake of fishing authorisations was 50% for tuna purse seiners, 86% for surface longliners and 64% for pole and line vessels. In 2012, it was 82%, 83% and 73% respectively and, in 2013 (first six months of the year) it was 79%, 11% and 73% respectively. In 2012, the reference tonnage (5,000 tonnes) was exceeded with total catches reaching 5,700 tonnes.
Revenue received by Cape Verde under the financial contribution and vessel operators' fees was close to €200,000 in 2011 (for a period of 4 months) and €630,000 in 2012. Vessel operators' fees contribute about 35% of the income. For every euro of the financial contribution, the direct gross added value for the EU is €4.2. For comparison, this ratio is 2.7 for the FPA between the EU and Côte d'Ivoire. “The FPA between the EU and Cape Verde is therefore a beneficial agreement in terms of public investment. High catches are the main reason for this good performance”, the report explains.
The report also goes on to explain that the real cost of fishing opportunities is reasonable in relation to catches and that the budget for sectoral support is too low to carry out actions with enough reach to generate tangible effects.
The prospective evaluation showed that there was interest among EU vessel operators for the EU and Cape Verde to agree a new protocol. The number of fishing opportunities for tuna purse seiners would then “remain close” to that of the current protocol. Fishing opportunities for longliners and pole and line vessels should be discussed with the vessel operators. The duration of the protocol should be between four and six years to ensure better implementation of sectoral support and enable a more consistent evaluation, the report points out. “A review of access costs should take place to reduce them to financially acceptable levels for vessel operators in the event of low catches”, it states. Finally, the report goes on to stress that a “real incentive mechanism should be designed and implemented to facilitate EU vessels' landings”.
The first fisheries agreement sealed between the EU (then the European Economic Community) and the Republic of Cape Verde was signed on 24 July 1990. Since then, six protocols have been applied, two of which are within the framework of the partnership agreement in the fisheries sector (FPA), which took effect on 1 September 2007. (LC/transl.jl)