Brussels, 08/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - According to an external study published by the European Commission on Friday 8 January, the fisheries agreement between the EU and the Union of the Comoros should be extended despite the current protocol's effectiveness being deemed average and the Comoros having been given a warning on 1 October (see EUROPE 11401) for its failure to address illegal fishing sufficiently rigorously.
The current protocol, which is due to expire at the end of 2016, allows 42 tuna purse seiners and 20 surface longliners flying the flag of an EU member state to access the pelagic resources in the Comorian fishing zone with a reference tonnage of capture of 6,000 tonnes. Over two years (2014 and 2015), the EU budget has paid a financial contribution of €1.2 million, with half - €600,000 - going to support the Comorian fisheries sector and the other half being compensation for access rights.
On 1 October 2015, the European Commission warned the Union of the Comoros of the risk of its being listed as a non-cooperating country in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This related largely to the “poor management of the Comorian flag by the Ministry of Transport and to a lack of monitoring of fishing vessels flying the Comorian flag by the Ministry responsible for Fisheries”, states the report. The warning, the report says, “has no impact on the negotiation of a possible future Protocol. However, in the case of entry on the list, the EU could suspend the protocol in force and negotiations on a new protocol”. The report highlights, however, the positive effect of the protocol: the sectoral support provided by the EU for institutional capacity building “would have to be used to help solve the problems identified in the fight against IUU fishing”.
The report recommends extending the duration of the protocol. It argues that the reference tonnage should be optimised in the light of its utilisation over the past five years, but also of the modest level of the financial contribution when compared to the needs of the Comoros in terms of development of the fisheries sector. Fishing opportunities for purse seiners should be commensurate with the number of EU purse seiners operating in the region and take into consideration the possibility of further development of the EU fleet (narrow margin) or of transferring one or two EU tuna purse seiners from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, which would result in slightly more than 30 fishing opportunities. Despite the current and historical low-level utilisation rate of longline fishing authorisations, the report says it would be appropriate to retain some longline fishing opportunities in view of the eventual development of the surface longline fleet based in the outermost regions of the European Union, mainly those in the Indian Ocean. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)