The European Parliament approved new fisheries control rules during a plenary session on 17 October in Strasbourg, France, securing a long-awaited revamp to the European Union’s fisheries control system.
The new rules come five years after the European Commission first proposed a revision of the E.U.’s fisheries control system, with the aim of modernizing and simplifying rules for monitoring fishery activities and ensuring compliance with the E.U. Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The European Parliament said the new rules will help the bloc collect more accurate data that should result in the better management of sea resources. All E.U. vessels – without exception – will have to register and declare their catches digitally. The new rules apply to fishing logbooks, transshipment declarations, and landing declarations.
The new regulations signal a shift from the E.U.’s paper-based system – in which more than 250,000 paper catch documents for seafood products arrive at E.U. borders annually – to a digital system, where vessel owners and authorities can share information and alerts faster at a bloc-wide scale.
Masters of vessels under 12 meters will be able to complete and submit a simplified declaration at the end of each fishing day once they are safe in port. Also, for the first time, recreational boats will have to declare their catches through electronic systems set up by national authorities or the Commission itself.
The new regulations also tackle disparities between E.U. member nations regarding sanctions, the Parliament confirmed, with the value of fishery products caught by a vessel now defining the minimum level of fines applied in cases of serious rule infringement.
The “margin of tolerance” – the difference between the estimate of fish caught and the weight at landing port – will be 10 percent per species, with some exceptions for small-volume catches and particular species.
To guarantee adherence to the E.U. landing obligation, vessels of 18 meters or more that may pose a high risk of noncompliance must carry remote electronic monitoring (REM) systems – including closed-circuit television (CCTV) – four years after the rules become enforceable at the latest.
Operators must now retain information from across their supply chain – from sea to plate – including from first sale to the retail stage of fishery and aquaculture products, with the Parliament stating that full digital traceability of fish and its derivatives should help reinforce food safety, ensure fairer competition, and combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Following the vote, Parliament’s Rapporteur Clara Aguilera confirmed that the body reached a “balanced agreement” for the E.U.’s fisheries sector.
“The new control rules will be harmonized and more transparent, with fully digital procedures,” she said. “With this, MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] are responding to the demand of consumers for information about the origin of all the food they eat.”
European Parliament’s pro-European political group Renew Europe welcomed the new regulations, with its MEP spokesperson within the Parliamentary Committee on Fisheries (PECH) Izaskun Bilbao Barandica stating that the rules are the result of a long negotiation process focused on strengthening measures fishers deserve and consumers need.
“The measures established, which also encourage the digitalization of the sector, help professionals to consolidate the socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable practices that characterize the activity of European fleets,” she said. “They also provide consumers with more comprehensive and reliable information on the origin and practices used to obtain products that reach the market. In this way, the former are shielded from insidious campaigns, and the latter can reward the most sustainable productions with their choice through their purchasing power.”
Throughout the legislative process, Renew Europe maintained two priorities: a consumer guarantee for healthy seafood products caught under fair conditions and improved controls to fully implement the CFP and achieve better management of fisheries resources.
Renew Europe also praised the rules’ requirements of declaring lost fishing gear, as any disappearance of lines and nets at sea must be notified in a vessel’s logbook and submitted electronically to authorities.
Many of Europe’s environmental NGOs greeted the new rules warmly as well.
“This is the most significant development in E.U. fisheries policy for a decade. All these new measures will conjunctively help the E.U. deliver on its sustainable and environmental objectives and help further materialize the E.U.’s zero-tolerance approach to IUU fishing,” WWF Europe Ocean Policy Officer Louis Lambrechts said.
Oceana Europe’s Deputy Vice President Vera Coelho highlighted that the E.U. will be the first major fishing jurisdiction in the world to require vessel-tracking devices and electronic catch reporting on its entire fleet.
“From the largest pelagic trawler to the smallest artisanal vessel, every fishing boat will be traceable in real-time. This will improve knowledge of fishing activities, protect areas where fishing is forbidden, and offer tangible benefits to fishers, such as improved safety at sea,” she said.
Coelho added that with the Union having one of the biggest fishing fleets in the world, comprising more than 70,000 vessels, the measure sets a “bold example” for other major fishing nations to follow.
Sciaena Executive Coordinator Gonçalo Carvalho added that with the regulation, E.U. fisheries can now be held fully accountable and prove that they are truly committed to sustainability.
“There will be changes in the day-to-day [operations] of fishers at sea, but we are ready to support them in implementing this regulation, as it is a unique opportunity to empower the sector and to show it has a role to play in achieving healthy marine ecosystems and vibrant coastal communities,” he said.
While NGO responses to the updated rules have been positive, the seafood industry has its reservations. European fishing industry body Europêche reiterated concerns it made earlier in the year, particularly about the installation of cameras on vessels.
Europêche Managing Director Daniel Voces told SeafoodSource that rather than working to make the landing obligation more practical, Parliament “doubled down on enforcing and controlling an inapplicable piece of legislation.” He also stressed that the mandatory use of CCTV will not suddenly make landing obligations feasible nor will it prevent unwanted catch from appearing in fishing nets.
Europêche wants industry representatives involved in the policy implementation process to ensure a pragmatic and feasible approach and for the rules and monitoring devices to also be mandatory for non-E.U. fleets operating in E.U. waters.
This, Voces said, would align with the Regulation on Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets and would help to avoid any exemption granted under trade or fisheries agreements.
Despite the negatives, Europêche said it welcomes the adoption of specific margins of tolerance for small pelagic and tropical tuna species, Voces said.
“These new rules will better account for the specificities of these fisheries when reporting their catches and will help to avoid unfair sanctions and penalty points they [fishers] are receiving due to the impossibility of complying with previous generalist rules,” he said.
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