On Monday 5 September, 13 organisations aiming to protect the oceans asked the European Commission to include Russian fishing vessels and imports of fishery products from Russia in the list of EU sanctions against the country led by Vladimir Putin.
The NGOs in question (including BirdLife, ClientEarth, Our Fish and Seas At Risk) have sent a letter to this effect to the Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius.
Russian exports of fisheries and aquaculture products to the EU were worth €580 million (2020), making Russia the 11th largest supplier of seafood products to the EU market in terms of value, the organisations state.
Russia reportedly has a fleet of over 1 000 commercial fishing vessels worldwide.
The NGOs criticise Russia’s poor record in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
To date, the EU has only banned caviar and high-end seafood from its territory. The impact of these EU bans is likely to be quite limited, as these imports are relatively small in volume, the NGOs say. They argue that the EU should extend the scope of its sanctions to Russian fishing vessels and to all seafood.
See the NGOs’ letter: https://aeur.eu/f/2xo (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)