Slipping through the net

The report finds that EU Member States have failed to effectively implement fisheries enforcement frameworks, characterized by delays in adopting penalty point systems, a lack of harmonized definitions for 'serious infringements', and sanctions that are neither deterrent nor transparent.

• Member States have experienced significant delays in implementing the penalty point system required by the Control Regulation, which should have been in force by 1 January 2012. The Netherlands was the only case studied to implement the requirement on time. In England, guidance for licence holders arrived in May 2013 and for masters in December 2014; France adopted a Decree on 26 December 2014; Poland's system entered into force in 2015; and Spain's implementing rules were adopted on 15 February 2013. In Ireland, the system for licence holders is currently on hold following High Court decisions, and no system exists for masters.
• A lack of harmonisation in defining 'serious infringements' prevents a level playing field across the EU, as the characterisation is left to the discretion of national competent authorities. For example, England only considers an infringement serious if successful criminal proceedings occur, while France uses eleven different criteria, and Poland uses four generic criteria including vessel length or engine power. This inconsistency means fishers may face different sanctions for the same infringement depending on the flag State.
• Sanctions for fisheries infringements are generally low and fail to meet the 'effective, proportionate and dissuasive' criteria required by the IUU and Control Regulations. None of the analysed Member States provide guidance to judges or authorities on how to account for the value of prejudice to the marine environment and fishing resources when setting fines. Examples of low average fines include approximately 345 Euros in Poland (2015) and 1,450 Euros in Ireland (2014).
• The penalty point system is largely ineffective or under-utilised. In Poland, no points had been administered as of October 2016, and in England, there is no public evidence of points being administered. In the Netherlands, only 16 points were administered between 2010 and 2014, and Spain administered 69 points to licence holders between 2013 and 2015. Furthermore, the European Commission noted that less than half of cases where a serious infringement was detected resulted in points being allocated to the licence holder.
• The fisheries enforcement system suffers from a lack of transparency due to the 2009 Control Regulation, which replaced annual public reporting with non-public reports every five years. Access to data on infringements and sanctions now depends on the goodwill of authorities or freedom of information requests. The report notes that in France, consolidated data is lacking and requests for information have been unsuccessful.

APA

ClientEarth (2017). Slipping through the net. https://www.clientearth.org/media/1rcczhlw/slipping-through-the-net-the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-france-ireland-the-netherlands-poland-spain-and-the-uk-england-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Slipping through the net. 2017. https://www.clientearth.org/media/1rcczhlw/slipping-through-the-net-the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-france-ireland-the-netherlands-poland-spain-and-the-uk-england-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Slipping through the net |date=September 2017 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/1rcczhlw/slipping-through-the-net-the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-france-ireland-the-netherlands-poland-spain-and-the-uk-england-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2017slipping, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Slipping through the net}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2017}, month = sep, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/1rcczhlw/slipping-through-the-net-the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-france-ireland-the-netherlands-poland-spain-and-the-uk-england-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }