“The time has come” to digitalise the catch certification scheme and exploit its potential to prevent fishery products stemming from products from illegal fishing from entering the EU market, stressed the European Commission in a report on illegal fishing adopted on Wednesday 17 April.
According to this report, which examines the implementation of Regulation 1005/2008 establishing a system to prevent and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the ‘CATCH’ certification system can become a reference point for digital catch documentation systems. EU importers and Member State authorities will be required to use ‘CATCH’ from 10 January 2026.
The report shows that the Regulation has continued to provide a comprehensive and effective framework for combating illegal fishing within the EU, and that the system of colour cards issued to third countries that are slow to penalise illegal fishing has become “an internationally recognised tool” for progressing the fight against ‘pirate’ fishing (see EUROPE 13257/9).
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/bt8 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)