Today, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), in the context of the European Union funded e-FishMed project, launched an exchange programme to enhance cooperation and to promote sharing of expertise and best practices in the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The exchange programme is targeted to fisheries inspectors and Fisheries Monitoring Centres (FMC) operators of the five e-FishMed Beneficiary Countries: Algeria, Libya, Morocco Mauritania and Tunisia. The programme is technically supported by the e-FishMed Project Partners: France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
The first edition of the exchange programme is organised in cooperation with the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that will kindly host participants from Beneficiary Countries, sharing with them working experience and methods from 15 to 19 April 2024.
The participants will start the programme in Madrid where they will visit the Spanish Fisheries Monitoring Centre and they will participate to several sessions that will facilitate sharing of knowledge and best practices and will reinforce contacts, networks and cooperation. The exchange will continue in Malaga where the participants will take part as observers to fishery inspection activities.
The implementation of the Exchange Programme is one of the expected results of the EU-funded e-FishMed project, supported and implemented by EFCA. The e-FishMed project contributes to harmonising fisheries control and inspection activities and promotes cooperation against Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) fishing and the effective implementation of control of conservation and management measures in the Mediterranean. The project will also contribute to creating the conditions for a sustainable Blue Economy in that area.
More information about the e-FishMed Project can be found here.
Background
EFCA is an EU agency that promotes the highest common standards for the control, inspection, and surveillance under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). EFCA was established to organise operational coordination activities by the Member States and to assist them to cooperate so as to comply with the CFP rules in order to ensure its effective and uniform application. EFCA also supports non-EU countries in the framework of EU funded capacity building Projects.
The added value of the work of the agency lies in its contribution to sustainable fisheries by enhancing compliance with conservation and management measures and to a playing field for the fishing industry.
- European Commission Communication on Sustainable Blue Economy
- Joint Communication on a “Renewed partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood” issued in February 2021