EC/Côte d'Ivoire Fisheries Partnership Agreement

The European Parliament adopted, by 568 to 65 with 17 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the proposal for a regulation on the conclusion of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement with Côte d’Ivoire.

The report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Daniel VARELA SUANZES-CARPEGNA (EPP-ED, ES) on behalf of the Committee on Fisheries.

The principal amendments - adopted under the consultation procedure - are based on the need for transparency and the improvement of information provided to Parliament on the implementation of the agreement. In particular, MEPs call on the Commission to provide the Parliament with the following information:

• the conclusions of the meetings of the joint committee referred to in Article 9 of the Partnership Agreement, in order to better evaluate the agreement;
• an annual report on the results of the multiannual sectoral programming planned for the protocol (in order to discover whether the compensation paid by the EU is accurately calculated and whether it does, in fact, encourage sustainable exploitation of Côte d’Ivoire’s fishery resources);
•  a report on the application of the agreement and the conditions under which it was implemented, during the final year of the protocol's validity and before another agreement is concluded on its renewal. On the basis of this report and following consultation with the European Parliament, the Council shall grant the Commission a new negotiating mandate with a view to the adoption of a new protocol.

The Commission shall evaluate each year whether the Member States whose vessels operate under the Protocol have complied with reporting requirements. Where they have not so complied, the Commission shall withhold their requests for fishing licences for the following year.