Source: European Parliament
For all Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs), the Commission is required to conduct an ex post evaluation when a protocol expires, as well as an ex ante evaluation setting out recommendations for a new SFPA implementing protocol.
As part of this process, the Commission consults all stakeholders, including industry, in particular through the Long Distance Advisory Council. All evaluations are sent to the European Parliament and published on the website of the Publications Office of the European Union.
The negotiating guidelines proposed by the Commission for adoption by the Council are based on these recommendations. They take the requirements of the European fleet fully into account, while ensuring compliance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, particularly when it comes to defining surplus.
Negotiations with the partner country determine the outcome of any fisheries agreement that is ultimately signed. The fishing opportunities that are negotiated are then allocated to the Member States by means of a Council Regulation.
With regard to the fisheries agreement with Morocco, the last implementing protocol expired in July 2023 and the corresponding evaluation has been published[1].
The Commission has taken note of the judgments handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union[2] on the appeals brought against the judgment of the General Court of 29 September 2021, and is currently analysing them in detail.