28 October 2008
Spain The European Community’s Fisheries Control Agency will strengthen, from 2010, onwards the consequences against vessels that violate the European laws on fishery catches and landings.
Its target is to prevent any possible illegal activities within all the extension of the CommunitarianOcean and also in waters where the fishing fleet has important interests controlled by regional fisheries organizations.
The agency wants to obtain full acknowledgement and recognition on its coordinating efforts until now. These activities have been shadowed by the fines imposed by each MemberState on their own vessels.
The Fisheries Control Agency is also keen on switching to IT system enabling the 27 EU States to work together in this field.
This is one of the key findings made during the board of directors’ meeting held at the agency'sheadquarters in Vigo, Spain, earlier this week and which was attended by a representative from each of the 27 member countries and six members of the European Commission.
According to the executive director of the office, the Dutch Harm Koster, it is not possible to enforce a common fisheries policy “without the commitment of the countries and the conviction of its fishermen. There must be a unanimous agreementâ€. He is therefore calling for a commitment of more countries to prevent overfishing.
In his view, the EC law enforcement has to be fair and also be applied to all, so that there are no contradictions within the fishing industry, norbetween countries or among fishermen.
The agency, Koster said, will continue to pursue the same development plans it started last year, such as the control of bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic.
