Search results
The CFCA has adopted its annual report for 2009 at the meeting of the Administrative Board held on the 18th of March. The annual report illustrates all the activities carried out by the CFCA in its first full year at its seat in Vigo and with 98% execution of its budget. Moreover, at the meeting, the Board discussed the Preliminary Work Programme of 2011, the preliminary draft budget and the outline for a multiannual work programme.
"The results shown in the Annual Report of 2009 speak by themselves. I am fully confident that this new spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm at European level will deliver progressively compliance, in the interest of a profitable fishing industry that provides safe nutritious food for our citizens from a healthy marine environment," said Serge Beslier, Chairman of the CFCA Administrative Board.
2009 results
Operational coordination of control, inspection and surveillance activities by Member States in relation to recovery measures for depleted stocks has been the first priority for the CFCA. Compliance with recovery measures applicable to stocks of cod in the Baltic and North Sea areas, the eastern Atlantic blue fin tuna and regulated species in the NAFO and NEAFC Regulatory Areas have been the focus of the Agency's work in 2009. In particular, six Joint Deployment Plans (JDP's), giving effect to Specific Control and Inspection Programmes adopted by the Commission and RFMO Schemes for joint international inspection and surveillance, have been adopted and implemented by the CFCA. As result, the level of control, inspection and surveillance activities carried out under these JDP's has increased significantly.
The CFCA has worked closely together with Member States and the Commission. All joint activities have been planned and implemented on the basis of joint risk analysis, prior training of national inspectors, harmonised inspections, cross boundary control, inspection and surveillance activities and, to a large extent, by teams of inspectors of mixed nationalities. The level of cooperation has been exemplary and the first signs of enhanced compliance levels have been observed notably in the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea.
In 2009, the CFCA has initiated also its activities in the area of the fight against IUU activities and in the area of Capacity Building in order to be ready for the priorities set for these activities in the 2010 Work Programme.
Mid–term priorities
The main priorities in the mid-term are:
• Supporting Member States and the Commission in applying the IUU Regulation.
• Operational coordination of inspection and control for cod in the North and Baltic seas, bluefin tuna, NAFO and NEAFC Regulatory Area, to be extended to Northern Hake, Swordfish and certain pelagics.
• Developing and strengthening the skills, abilities, processes and resources of enforcement authorities for the purpose of uniform and effective application of the rules of the CFP by Member States.
Proposed Draft Budget for 2011
The proposed draft budget of the European Union subsidy for the CFCA in 2011 is of 8.85 million Euros (7.28 million of administrative expenditure and 1.57 of operational expenditure). In comparison to 2010, it implies a 5.2% increase, as this year the CFCA has 8.41 million Euros subsidy.
As part of the project PESCAO, two workshops organised by EFCA on the analysis and preliminary recommendations resulting from the Fisheries Committee for the Western Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) and the Sub-regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC) Member Countries’ legal review were held on 22 and 23 May 2019 at SRFC headquarters in Dakar, Senegal.
The main objective of the workshops was to present the analysis and preliminary recommendations resulting from the FCWC and SRFC Member Countries’ legal review carried out by an external expert contracted by EFCA.
Officials from the FCWC and SRFC Member States, in addition to representatives of the FCWC and SRFC Secretariats, the European Commission, the European Union Delegation in Senegal and EFCA attended the workshop.
During the workshop it was provided an overview of the international, regional and sub-regional instruments applicable in the context of the fight against IUU fishing as well as an analysis of the relevant legislation of each country of the two sub-regional organizations.
The workshop also focused heavily on discussing the needs in terms of legal updating and/or implementation for each country, and a preliminary set of recommendations to address those needs.
Following the workshop, EFCA, in collaboration with its PESCAO partners – FCWC and SRFC - will support selected countries in drafting and amending national legislation
The third workshop of the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF) on "Multipurpose Maritime Operations" (MMO) held in Catania, Sicily, Italy from 3 to 5 June, highlighted the coordination between the Italian Coast Guard, the Guardia di Finanza, and the cooperation with Italian Navy.
The workshop was organised with the support of the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) and welcome around 90 delegates from 16 Member States and from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), which are supporting national authorities carrying out Coast Guard functions with EFCA.
Since 2009, the European Forum of Coast Guard Functions voluntarily brings together several national organisations implementing Coast Guard functions in the European Union (EU), European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Schengen area, with the aim of strengthening the so-called Coast Guard cooperation.
The event addressed the issue of complex multipurpose maritime operations, in which several Coast Guard functions are implemented simultaneously, in order to prepare effective and efficient responses to multiple challenges that may arise in a given area of operations. In these contexts, the coordinated participation of units belonging to the different Coast Guard organisations and to the three EU agencies is crucial.
The agenda of the first day's work included a plenary session and three working groups on the different aspects of this activity, with a particular focus on risk management, training, operational and logistical implications.
The concept of MMO was concretely tested on 4 June in the context of an exercise at sea called COASTEX19. Under the operational coordination of the Italian Coast Guard eleven naval assets, three aircrafts and three boarding teams created a complex scenario that simulated activities to combat illegal fishing, fight pollution, search and rescue operations and illegal trafficking.
The human resources and means of the Italian Coast Guard, Guardia di Finanza and Italian Navy, the three EU agencies as well as the Portuguese Navy, the German Federal Police and the Spanish Customs intervened in various moments of the exercise, cooperating with high standards of interoperability and synergy. The delegates participating in the workshop were able to attend as privileged observers all the operations directly from four of the ships engaged in Coastex19.
The workshop concluded today with the presentation of the exercise outcomes during the last preparatory meeting of the Plenary Conference of Heads of Coast Guard organisations to be held in Venice, Italy from 12 to 15 November 2019
For three days, from 18 to 20 September 2019, twenty fisheries inspectors from the Republic of The Gambia were instructed in control techniques at sea and at landing by trainers from the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA).
Set up and organized by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC), this training aims at building the capacities of competent national and regional monitoring, control and surveillance authorities to and deter Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), which is one of the components of the PESCAO programme, financed and implemented since 2018 by the European Union (EU).
Thus, fisheries inspectors from various administrations (Navy, Directorate of Fisheries, Sanitary Inspection and Maritime Authority) have followed theoretical and practical training to become familiar with the different techniques and applicable regulations, in the context of the recent membership of the Republic of The Gambia to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the sustainable fisheries partnership agreement signed between the EU and the Republic of The Gambia.
Inaugurated by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries of the Republic of The Gambia, Mr. Bamba Banja, this training ended with a practical exercise in the fishing port of Banjul, allowing fisheries inspectors from The Gambia to discover new methods of fisheries control and to become familiar with EFCA's e-learning platform.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea for juvenile fish starting from 13/01/2024 to 02/02/2024 23:59 hrs.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea for juvenile fish starting from 21/01/2024 to 12/03/2024 23:59 hrs.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea starting from 22/02/2024 to 13/03/2024 23:59 hrs.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea starting from 10/03/2024 to 30/03/2024 23:59 hrs.