To ensure compliance with the rules and to stop illegal fishing, fishing controls are conducted by both the Member States themselves and the EU control organisation.

Controls take place both in port and at sea. The European Commission conducts controls, primarily of Member States’ control activities, through Community inspectors. The EU has also set up a Community Fisheries Control Agency, which has now begun work on coordinating the Member States’ fisheries controls in various EU fishing grounds. The Agency is located in Vigo, Spain.

Deficiencies in the current control system

The current EU fisheries control system has obvious deficiencies. The deficiencies have been pointed out both by the Commission and the Court of Auditors. If the fisheries control system does not function as it should, this will have a serious impact on future fish resources, the fishing industry and the regions that are dependent on fishing, not to mention the negative environmental impacts.

A far-reaching reform of the fisheries control system is currently being discussed throughout the EU. The proposed reform of the fisheries control system is global and integrated, focusing on all aspects of the Common Fisheries Policy, from net to plate.

The proposal aims not only to improve control capacity and the management of fisheries resources, and establish a level playing field in the EU, but also to have a positive structural impact on the fishing industry and the market and thereby combat the environmental, economic and social effects of non-compliance.

The reform is expected to promote a climate in which the rules for the fisheries sector are complied with, equal competitive conditions are created for Europe’s fishermen and consumers can be confident that they are able to eat legally caught fish.

Negotiations on the reform of the fisheries control system over the last two years have been long and intensive, first on the IUU regulation (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing), on which a decision was made in 2008, and now on the coherent and comprehensive control regulation in 2009.

The Presidency’s aim is for the fisheries ministers to reach a political agreement at the Council meeting on 19–20 October.