The three institutions of the EU reached agreement on Tuesday 20 June on the new system for awarding and managing fishing authorisations that will allow the authorities to better monitor EU vessels fishing outside EU waters and international vessels fishing in European waters.
The text on the external fleet will be put to a vote in the plenary session of the European Parliament in September. It will apply to EU vessels fishing outside EU waters and third country vessels fishing inside EU waters.
Fishing authorisations. Every EU vessel fishing beyond EU waters will be required to obtain an authorisation by its flag member state. Authorisation will be based on a set of common eligibility criteria which include: - administrative information on the vessel, its owner and the master; - the unique vessel identification number issued by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) where this is required by EU legislation; - valid fishing licence; - proof that the vessel is not included in an illegal fishing (IUU) vessel list.
Monitoring authorisations. The flag state will be required regularly to monitor whether the conditions on the basis of which a fishing authorisation has been issued continue to be met during the period of validity of the authorisation.
Re-flagging. Vessels which, during the five-year period prior to the application for an authorisation, have left the EU register and been reflagged in a third country then subsequently returned to the EU register will only receive the authorisation by the flag state if the state has verified the vessel did not engage in IUU activities nor operated in a non-cooperating country or a third country identified as allowing non-sustainable fishing.
Public register. An EU electronic fishing authorisation register will be set up with one part being accessible to the public. The public part will contain information on the name of the vessel, IMO number, target species and fishing zone.
The agreement on the external fishing fleet will be put to a plenary vote in September. It will apply to EU vessels fishing outside EU waters, and to third-country vessels fishing in EU waters.
NGOs Oceana, Environmental Justice Foundation and WWF have welcomed the agreement on the new regulation. They point out that external fleets fish 28% of all EU catches.
Fishing association Europêche has also welcomed the agreement reached which eliminates what it refers to as the infamous double penalty system (in addition to the heavy penalties imposed, vessels are ineligible for authorisations for the following 12 months). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)