The European Union, the world’s largest importer of seafood products, is facing a serious problem of illegal fishing, according to a report published on Wednesday 29 October by the EU IUU Fishing Coalition.
This report (https://aeur.eu/f/j6q ), drawn up by a coalition including the Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana and The Pew Charitable Trusts, reveals that EU import controls and the inadequate implementation of European law by certain Member States allow products from illegal fishing to enter the European market.
A fifth of global catches could be linked to illegal practices, human rights abuses or environmental destruction, according to the authors.
Some Member States, such as Italy and Portugal, hardly check catch certificates at all. The Netherlands reportedly fails to comply with the legal minimum number of inspections, despite large volumes of products coming from high-risk countries. While Spain inspects more than 70% of direct landings, weak controls in other countries are believed to create gateways for illegal fish. Progress is being made in terms of digitisation with the CATCH system, but this alone is not enough to fill these gaps, according to the NGOs. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)