Questions and Answers on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing

What is IUU fishing?

IUU fishing is defined in the 2001 FAO International Plan of Action to fight IUU fishing.

The European IUU legislation applies to all fishing vessels, under any flag, in all maritime waters.

A fishing vessel is notably presumed to engage in IUU fishing activities if it is shown to carry out activities in contravention with the conservation and management measures applicable in the area concerned. This includes, for example, fishing without a valid licence, in a closed area or during a closed season, or using a prohibited gear, as well as the failure to fulfil reporting obligations or obstruction of the inspectors' work.

What is the policy of the EU to fight IUU fishing?

The EU is the world's largest import market for fisheries products and bears an important responsibility as market State in the fight against IUU fishing.

The EU Regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU Regulation) entered into force on 1 January 2010. It applies to all landings and transhipments of EU and third-country fishing vessels in EU ports, and all trade of marine fishery products to and from the EU. The IUU catch certification scheme applies to the trade of marine fishery products with the EU. It aims to make sure that only legally caught fisheries products end up on the EU market.

The catch certification scheme requires flag States to certify that fish caught by their vessels and imported to the EU do not stem from illegal fishing activities. The system aims to ensure that countries comply with national and regional conservation and management rules as well as with internationally agreed rules.

How does the EU ensure that third countries exporting their fishery products to the EU comply with their international obligations?

So far, 94 third countries have notified the Commission that they have the necessary legal instruments and the appropriate administrative arrangements for the certification of the catches by vessels flying their flag.

The Commission cooperates with a number of third countries and carries out evaluation missions to assess their compliance with the international obligations in the fight against illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing.

The Commission puts an emphasis on cooperation to address the problems identified, but there are third countries where the situation continues to be problematic even after years of cooperation. In those cases, the Commission can resort to the different actions established in the EU IUU Regulation vis-à-vis non-cooperating third countries in fighting IUU fishing.

Concretely, when the Commission has evidence that a third country does not fully cooperate in the fight against IUU fishing and does not abide by its international obligations in this area, it issues a notification on the possibility to be identified as non-cooperating country. With this first step of the process, known as yellow card, the Commission warns the country of the risk of being identified as a non-cooperating country in the fight against IUU fishing. The yellow card starts a formal dialogue in which the Commission supports the third country in its work to solve all issues of concern. In most cases, this dialogue is productive and the pre-identification can be lifted.

However, if progress is not sufficient, the Commission can identify the third country as non-cooperating in the fight against IUU fishing (‘red card'). The Commission will then propose to the Council to add this country to the list of non-cooperating countries. The listing entails several measures, in particular the prohibition to export fish caught by vessels from that country in question to the EU market.

Of course, the dialogue continues and, if new assessments prove that the situation has been rectified, the third country is then delisted.

An overview of the process is available in this infographic.

How many countries are currently under a yellow or red card?

A full overview of all past and ongoing procedures can be found on this Commission website.

More information

Press release