The 43rd annual meeting of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) – which includes the European Union, representatives from Denmark in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland, Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation – concluded recently.

NEAFC cited significant challenges in securing consensus among its members as the meeting came to a close, grappling with issues of fish stock management, illegal fishing and compliance with existing regulations.

For the first time in the NEAFC’s history, no compliance report was presented, sparking serious concerns from the European Union as it means serious infringements by some NEAFC parties will not be formally recognised or addressed, and violations by other fleets operating within the NEAFC area are unlikely to face sanctions.

The EU expressed concerns over the absence of a compliance report for the first time in NEAFC’s history. Serious infringements to the NEAFC rules involving vessels from some NEAFC parties have not been formally recognised by the organisation and will not be followed up. Infringements of other fleets operating in the NEAFC area will also face no sanctions.

An EU statement said: ‘The EU regrets that no other parties called on Russia to cease fishing activities that appear to be illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) and to take enforcement action in relevant cases. Russian vessels have been engaging in bottom fishing outside the designated bottom fishing areas, and without notifying NEAFC. Fishing outside those areas is prohibited under the NEAFC recommendation aimed at protecting vulnerable marine ecosystems.

The EU opposed granting the status of cooperating non-contracting party to Panama and Bahamas and proposed listing several vessels from those countries in the NEAFC IUU list due to detected infringements and insufficient enforcement measures.’