More than 90 delegates from the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF) gathered in Venice for the plenary sessions of the Heads of Coast Guard Functions Organisations.
The European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) Administrative Board, in its 33th meeting held on 22 October in Vigo (Spain), has adopted the Single Programming Document (SPD) for 2020-2024, comprising of a complete overview of the resources allocated to the Agency in accordance with planned objectives, indicators and deliverables for the coming years. The budget for 2020 is of EUR 17.6 million, subject to the adoption of the European Union (EU) budgetary authority.
European law enforcement and fisheries control authorities have enhanced their cooperation in combating illegal fishing activities following the organisation of a Joint Action Day (JAD) on 25 September, in the framework of EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats). The leader of this particular JAD was Portugal with EFCA as co-leader, teaming up EU Agencies (Europol, Eurojust and Frontex) and Member States Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Italy, Portugal, Spain, law enforcement and fisheries control communities.
From 2 to 4 October 2019 in Praia, Cape Verde, officials from the Fisheries Monitoring Centres (FMCs) of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau have participated in a workshop which overall objective was to strengthen the knowledge and usability of vessel monitoring systems (VMS), Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and other control technologies such as satellite imagery.
Twenty fisheries inspectors from Nigeria have participated in the training session from 2 to 4 October 2019 provided by experts from the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) and the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) with the support of national trainers, in the framework of the EU funded project PESCAO.
On 25 September, a Joint Action Day (JAD), part of a large scale JAD concept, has taken place in the framework of EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats), to coordinate specifically the Operational Action (OA) on Illegal Fishing. The leader of the OA is Portugal, EFCA is co-leader and the OA is teaming up EU Agencies (Europol, Eurojust and Frontex) and Member States Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italia, Malta, Romania law enforcement and fisheries control communities as well as Interpol.
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).
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.
EFCA has participated to the second joint fisheries monitoring operation in West Africa in 2019, organized by the SRFC as part of the PESCAO program. That operation, called “KUTA”, was an aeronautical and maritime surveillance operation coordinated by the SRFC and in which the Member States concerned cooperated to detect illegal fishing activities which did not comply with the conservation and management rules in force.
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.