European Community Third Party Fisheries
Agreements and the Future of
Partnership Agreements within the Common Fisheries Policy.
Summary
1. Introduction
On December 23rd 2002 the European Community (EC) Commission
presented within the framework of the CFP Reform "a Communication
on an Integrated Framework for Fisheries Partnership Agreements
with Third Countries".
This document is important because it proposes radical changes
to EC policy regarding Fisheries Agreements with Third Countries,
which involve payment of financial contributions. If the proposals
presented in the Communication become EC policy they will have a
significant effect on the relationship between EC nations and third
countries where the EC fleet fishes.
This paper explores the development of EC Fisheries Agreements
and reviews the various types of agreements currently in place and
discusses the future of EC fishing agreements with third
countries.
The relationship between coastal States and fishing fleets
from non-adjacent countries has been transformed since the 1970s
and early 1980s. This was primarily a result of the declaration of
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) by many coastal states in the years
leading up to the close of the negotiations of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982.
Significantly, by recognizing the right of coastal states to
determine how their waters were to be exploited, UNCLOS provided a
legal basis and economic motivation for the negotiation of access
agreements between coastal states and distant water fishing
nations.
Global fisheries if managed wisely have the potential to
provide a rich source of food (protein), a sustainable livelihood
for fishermen and their dependant communities, and at the same time
allow marine ecosystems to support a rich and diverse biodiversity.
However, without proper management, human activities can place all
these benefits at risk. Because many fish stocks in EC waters have
been seriously over fished, there has been a transfer EC fishing
effort into the waters of other countries through the negotiation
of EC Third Party Fishing Agreements.
There is a real danger that EC fisheries agreements could and
do result in the adverse environmental impacts experienced in EC
waters being transferred to third country water and consequently
creating socio-economic problems for these third countries.
European fisheries agreements with third countries have the
potential to be a force for good if they are well managed and if
the principals that will be applied within EC waters, through the
reform of the CFP, are applied equally upon third country
waters.