Fisheries management measures in the Mediterranean: Transposition into EU law

Written by Anne Altmayer.

All Member States bordering the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, together with the European Union, participate in the management of fisheries in this area, in cooperation with several third countries, in the framework of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM). As a contracting party to the GFCM, the EU is bound to adopt its decisions. The European Commission has therefore proposed to transpose a number of recently adopted GFCM measures into EU law.

Background

Fishing in areas beyond national jurisdiction is subject to cooperation among the countries that have fishing interests in those areas, in the framework of regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs). Some RFMOs have broad mandates to manage various fisheries resources in a specific geographical area, while others focus on the management of highly migratory species (particularly tunas). The two RFMOs covering the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region are the GFCM and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean

The GFCM was established in 1949 under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The GFCM’s area of application, covering the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and their connecting waters, is subdivided into 30 geographical sub-areas (see Figure 1). The organisation has the authority to adopt compulsory decisions (‘recommendations’) in its area of competence.

Since its adoption, the GFCM Agreement has been amended several times. It currently comprises 23 contracting parties: 19 Mediterranean states, three Black Sea states and the European Union. The member countries include almost all coastal states, among them all 10 EU Member States around the area of application (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Spain). There are also six cooperating non-contracting parties (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Jordan, Moldova, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine).

The main objectives of the GFCM are to promote the conservation, rational management and best utilisation of living marine resources, as well as the sustainable development of aquaculture. The decisions taken by the GFCM aim at the recovery of fish stocks and the protection of vulnerable habitats in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

In particular, the GFCM establishes multiannual management plans aimed at sustainable exploitation of fishery resources. The current plans cover the European eel, the dolphinfish and the red coral in the Mediterranean; small pelagic and demersal fisheries in the Adriatic Sea; blackspot seabream in the Alboran Sea; Black Sea turbot; deep-water red shrimp in the eastern-central Mediterranean; and European hake and deep-water rose shrimp in the Strait of Sicily. The GFCM also establishes fisheries restricted areas, in which specific fishing activities are restricted or banned in order to protect specific stocks, habitats and deep-sea ecosystems. As a GFCM member, the EU is very active in initiating new decisions, and plays a critical role in fisheries governance in the region.

The GFCM implements its policy and activities through a secretariat based at its headquarters in Rome.

European Commission proposal

As a contracting party to the GFCM, the EU is bound by the measures adopted by this organisation and must enact them into EU law, to ensure their uniform and effective application across the EU. The current proposal would implement into EU law GFCM measures adopted in 2021 and 2022. To this end, it will amend Regulation 2023/2124, which brings together the original Regulation 1343/2011 with its 2015 and 2019 amendments. The Commission proposal marks the fifth implementation of GFCM recommendations into a dedicated regulation.

New GFCM measures and the proposal

The measures proposed by the Commission can be divided into conservation and control measures aimed at sustainable exploitation of marine species, and measures aimed at reducing the impact of fishing activities on vulnerable marine ecosystems and non-target species.

The measures on the sustainable exploitation of fish species comprise, in particular:

• the prohibition of recreational eel fisheries (Article 12);
• management measures for giant red shrimp and blue and red shrimp fishing, including spatial/temporal restrictions in the Levant Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Strait of Sicily (Articles 14-37);
• precautionary closure of red coral fisheries when a trigger catch level is reached (Article 44);
• management measures for demersal fisheries for European hake and deep-water rose shrimp in the Strait of Sicily and the Adriatic Sea, including spatial/temporal restrictions in the Strait of Sicily (Articles 57-72);
• management measures for small pelagic fisheries (anchovy and sardine), including closures in the Adriatic Sea, and for European sprat in the Black Sea (Articles 73-75g);
• management measures for blackspot seabream fisheries in the Alboran Sea, including spatial/temporal closures (Articles 76-80);
• management measures for common dolphinfish fisheries (Articles 81-88);
• introduction of a catch certificate for turbot from the Black Sea (Article 94a);
• management measures for piked dogfish fisheries in the Black Sea (Articles 96a-96e).

To mitigate the impact of fishing activities, the proposal envisages, in particular:

• protection measures for elasmobranch species (Article 98) as well as seabirds, sea turtles and cetaceans (Articles 102-105);
• the establishment of minimum standards for all fisheries restricted areas (Article 106a-d).

Furthermore, a new section on transhipments is introduced (Articles 120a-120k), as well as further measures addressing IUU fishing (Article 130).

Read this ‘At a glance’ note on ‘Fisheries management measures in the Mediterranean: Transposition into EU law‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.