Stichting International Pole & Line
IPNLF
The International Pole & Line Foundation (IPNLF) develops, supports, and promotes socially and environmentally responsible one-by-one tuna fisheries around the world.
ID: 873765432610-09
Lobbying Activity
Response to An EU strategy for fisheries external action
15 Sept 2025
The International Pole and Line Foundation works to increase equity in global fisheries management to improve market access for small-scale, one-by-one tuna fisheries. We are pleased to see the open call for feedback to guide the EUs strategy for external action. We urge the EU to consider the legacy of international tuna fisheries management decisions they have made in recent years, many of which have gone against the precautionary approach and the EU Common Fisheries Policy. Firstly, the EUs external action should align with internal action. That means the EU should be pushing for equitable allocation systems which are based on transparent and objective criteria, including those of an environmental, social and economic nature, when allocating fishing opportunities. They must also endeavour to provide incentives to fishing vessels deploying selective gear or using techniques with a reduced environmental impact (Article 17, CFP). Therefore, the EU should prioritise small-scale fishers and coastal communities over distant-water industrial fleets that undermine local food security, governance, and marine ecosystems. However, thus far, catch history has been the primary criterion pushed by the EU, internationally, which perpetuates unfair access to fishing opportunities and threatens livelihoods in developing coastal states. Such an approach goes against the principles that the EU claims to uphold in its own fisheries. Similarly, the EU states that destructive fishing gear should not be permitted in their own MPAs and yet EU-owned destructive drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) are regularly interacting with and undermining the MPA conservation efforts of developing coastal states who rely on healthy abundant local resources for food security. These interactions are regularly in contravention to the management plans of MPAs and even national laws which arguably makes dFADs IUU. This juxtaposition is a real concern for local communities and IPNLF. We urge the EU to consider the sustainability of a business model which pollutes coastal and deep-ocean habitats with as many as 100,000 heavy, plastic-based, often entangling supplementary fishing gears every year. Would the EU permit such impacts in the waters of their own member states? Another key consideration should be the EUs approach to harmful subsidies. The EU should actively work to eliminate subsidies, financing, or trade incentives that lead to overfishing, bycatch, or threaten the livelihoods of small-scale fishers. Public funding should not be used to exacerbate environmental degradation or support intensive fishing models at odds with sustainability or equity objectives. This includes re-evaluating support for fleet expansion, infrastructure, and fisheries-related research when it risks undermining sustainability or equity goals. Finally, the EUs approach to sustainable fisheries partnership agreements should be reformed away from their current model which primarily aims to fund EU fleet access to abundant coastal waters of developing countries and instead provides genuine support for sustainable fishing, particularly small-scale fishing. It is vital that the power and ownership of coastal resources remains in the hands of the relevant coastal states and that they feel empowered to make policy decisions that benefit the longevity and prosperity of their own fishing communities and resources, not only those of the EU. Current policy does not indicate that this change is on the horizon but it is essential that the EUs financial, diplomatic and technical choices contribute to strengthening sustainable small-scale fishing communities in partner countries, rather than marginalising them.
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