EU Fisheries Control System factsheet

The document asserts that the current EU Fisheries Control System fails to deter IUU fishing due to a lack of implementation and harmonisation of sanctions across Member States. It highlights that negligible fines allow offenders to treat sanctions as a "basic cost of doing business" and notes that the penalty point system is "not fit for purpose" because seriousness criteria vary by state. The factsheet supports the European Commission's proposal to introduce mandatory administrative sanctions with minimum fine levels and objective EU-wide criteria for serious infringements. ClientEarth further recommends expanding the list of serious infringements to include turning off AIS transmitters and failing to mitigate the accidental catch of sensitive species.

• The existing EU Fisheries Control System suffers from a lack of implementation, with few Member States applying sanctions that are effective, proportionate, and dissuasive. This failure undermines the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and creates an uneven playing field where the same infringement may be prosecuted in one Member State but not in another.
• The current penalty point system for serious infringements is considered ineffective because Member States use different national criteria to determine what constitutes a 'serious' infringement, leading to inconsistent point allocations for the same offense.
• Insufficient sanctions allow IUU fishers to maintain an unfair economic advantage, as they can treat low fines as a business expense while continuing profitable illegal activities.
• The European Commission's proposal for a revised Control Regulation aims to improve consistency by introducing mandatory administrative sanctions, setting minimum fine levels, and establishing a list of objective criteria to define serious infringements.

APA

ClientEarth (n.d.). EU Fisheries Control System factsheet. https://www.clientearth.org/media/gujaiosm/sanctions-factsheet-coll-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. EU Fisheries Control System factsheet. n.d. https://www.clientearth.org/media/gujaiosm/sanctions-factsheet-coll-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=EU Fisheries Control System factsheet |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/gujaiosm/sanctions-factsheet-coll-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearthndfisheries, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{EU Fisheries Control System factsheet}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/gujaiosm/sanctions-factsheet-coll-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }