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7th Administrative Board meeting (13 March)
On 13 March the Administrative Board of the Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) will hold its 7th meeting. Among the decisions to be taken are changes in the budget and the work programme to cater for the Joint Deployment Plan (JDP) for the recovery of blue fin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.
The blue fin tuna JDP is the main new initiative of the CFCA in 2008. It is a joint community project in which Member States, the Commission and the CFCA are working closely together. It will mainly concern Member States with a strong interest in the fishery: Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. The JDP will organise and co-ordinate control, inspection and surveillance of the bluefin tuna fishery activities at sea and on land, using resources that have been pooled from the participating Member States. The JDP activities will be co-ordinated by a Technical Joint Deployment Group (TJDG), which will be set up in Brussels on 1 April 2008 and remain there until the end of the year.
The Administrative Board will also discuss options for the 2009 work programme of the Agency. The Executive Director has proposed to continue the joint deployment plans for North Sea cod, Baltic Sea cod, blue fin tuna and the joint inspection and surveillance activities adopted under the North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), with a possible extension to Western Waters and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Convention area (NEAFC), which are important fishing areas where there is a need for organizing operational cooperation between Member States concerned. The CFCA should also coordinate control and inspection of imports and landings in Community ports of fishery products originating from IUU fishing activities, organise training for fisheries inspectors and start an evaluation of the effectiveness of the joint deployment plans.
All staff visit Vigo (14-18 March)
The Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) is moving to its seat in the Vigo, Spain, in July 2008. As a preparation for the relocation, all staff of the new agency and their partners will visit Vigo 14-18 March. During this trip the staff will be received, inter alia, by the Xunta de Galicia and the City of Vigo.
Background (14 March)
The decision to establish an EU Fisheries Control Agency was taken under the 2002 reform of the Common Fisheries Policy to strengthen monitoring and control of EU fisheries measures and to help ensure that they are applied uniformly throughout the EU. The Agency will liaise with the stakeholder-led Regional Advisory Councils to secure input from the fisheries sector and other stakeholders, and to help promote a culture of compliance with EU conservation and management measures throughout the EU.
The core activity of the CFCA is operational coordination of pooled national means of control, inspection and surveillance.
The Agency currently has 28 staff members from 12 EU Member States. It will be fully staffed (49 staff members) by the end of 2008.
Among the achievements of the newly created agency are three major coordination tasks carried out in 2007:
- Coordination of EU control, inspection and surveillance activities in the regulatory area of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), a task that previously was ensured by the European Commission.
- A Joint Deployment Plan for cod stocks in the North Sea, which started in July 2007 and will continue in 2008. The plan is an innovative and coordinated effort to combat over-fishing and save endangered cod stocks in the North Sea. Resources (inspectors, control vessels, aircraft, etc) were pooled by seven Member States and were deployed where they were most needed, to ensure more effective and uniform control of fishing activities.
- Joint inspection and surveillance campaigns in relation to the long term management plan for cod in the Baltic Sea, which deploy resources that had been pooled by the coastal Member States. The campaigns will continue in 2008.
This week EFCA is conducting a 'training for trainers' session on Fisheries control and inspection for GFCM countries. 13 trainers from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are participating in the training session.
Last week (23-26/05/2017), representatives from 20 European countries with sea borders joined Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, along with officials from the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Portugal to move forward with the cooperation on European coast guard functions.
During the three-day Coastex2017 Coast Guard exercise hosted by the Portuguese presidency of the European Coast Guard Functions Forum, vessels, helicopters, airplanes and 90 observers from European Coast Guard authorities conducted exercises to test different coast guard functions. The scenarios tested were: detection of migrants, search and rescue, medical evacuation, pollution, illegal fishing, boarding of a ferry transporting a dangerous person, seizure of drugs and arrest of the traffickers.
“I am delighted to see vessels and helicopters from Italy, Spain and Portugal as well as coast guard officers coming from Germany and observers from 20 European maritime countries taking part in this exercise,” said Berndt Koerner, Frontex Deputy Executive Director.
“Running exercises is crucial if we want to be effective at sea because it helps us test the best ways of working together in a variety of scenarios. The aim of this particular exercise, and the numerous seminars taking place behind the scenes, is to develop the best way of conducting coast guard operations together,” he added.
Coast Guard organisations differ from country to country in Europe. In some, the coast guard is mainly responsible for search and rescue, while other national authorities also cover responsibilities related to law enforcement, fisheries, maritime safety or pollution control.
Frontex has been working hand in hand with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) to cover the full scope of coast guard functions that go beyond border management.
This week in EFCA's premises a group of inspectors from the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) from the EU and Canada are participting in a workshop about conservation and enforcement measures. International cooperation strenghtens as participants discuss recent infringement cases to improve procedures.