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Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs):

The EU negotiates SFPAs (previously called Fisheries Partnership Agreements, FPAs) with non-EU countries to allow EU vessels to fish for surplus stocks in that country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Under these agreements, the EU pays a contribution to the coastal state for access to its fishing resources.

The majority of these SFPAs are negotiated with developing countries. In 2014, more than €130 million was paid to 13 countries to secure access to fisheries for the EU fleet under this type of agreement. The only publicly disclosed information on SFPAs is the access fee paid by the EU, the EU member states that requested access to the country's waters, and the available fishing opportunities.

Access of third countries to EU waters:

Access of third country vessels to EU waters, for instance, in overseas territories is governed through access agreements with the EU. Currently, Venezuela-flagged vessels are fishing in French Guyana and Seychelles-flagged vessels are fishing in Mayotte.

These cover the joint management of shared stocks with Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. EU vessels fish in Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese waters under FAR licences and vice versa. With many North Sea and North-East Atlantic stocks shared across maritime boundaries, the EU, Iceland, Norway and the Faroe Islands coordinate their fishing activities and exchange quota. These agreements are extremely important to a large section of the EU fleet, especially the agreement with Norway, which covers quotas worth over €2 billion.

Authorisations for EU vessels to operate within a Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) Agreement area or on the high seas where no RFMO is in place. The EU is currently a contracting party to six tuna RFMOs and 11 non-tuna RFMOs in all of the world’s oceans.

Private or chartering agreements between EU companies and third countries.

EU companies also negotiate private agreements with certain non-EU countries that grant them private access to fishing resources in the waters of these coastal states. This is only allowed when there is no Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the EU and the particular country in place. In addition, EU companies set up chartering agreements for their EU vessels to fish the resources of certain coastal states in collaboration with local companies.

In addition, under the current Regulation, EU member states whose vessels engage in fishing activities in non-EU country waters through private or chartering agreements must only inform the European Commission of the names of the vessels concerned. There is no requirement to provide other relevant information, such as the target species, fishing area, period or gear, or for this information to be made publically available. This makes it impossible for the Commission, non-EU countries with a fishing or management interest in the same stocks and other stakeholders to fully understand the activities carried out by these vessels and to ensure they are legal and sustainable.

Furthermore, there is no EU-wide database of information on private agreements between EU companies and third countries. Even though the vessels benefitting from these agreements fly EU flags or are operated by EU nationals, the EU has not established procedures to ensure that these arrangements comply with EU fisheries laws, respect labour laws, or to guarantee the EU operator that the authorisation they have bought is valid. Information on private agreements since 2008 was included in the access to information request. However the European Commission was not able to provide any information on fishing activity of EU Member States under private agreements. Private agreements are therefore not included in this database.