Spain – A progress report on a decade of combating IUU fishing: an update from the 2020/2021 biennial report

The report evaluates Spain's progress in combating IUU fishing from 2020 to 2021. It finds that Spain maintains a high level of implementation, characterized by 100% catch certificate verification and sophisticated IT tools, although some indicators like the number of vessel inspections and reported infringements have slightly declined. The document recommends that the European Commission increase transparency by publishing all Member State biennial reports and conducting public audits to ensure data accuracy and harmonisation across the EU.

• Spain demonstrates a high level of compliance and progress in several key areas of the IUU Regulation, including the use of a risk assessment approach for verifying catch certificates, the employment of an IT tool to monitor imports, and maintaining a 100% verification rate for catch certificates and processing statements.
• The volume of fishery product imports to Spain increased by 3% between 2019 and 2021, rising from 1,006,446 to 1,037,767 tonnes, while the number of catch certificates received decreased by 6% over the same period, from 62,834 to 58,927.
• There has been a decline in certain enforcement indicators between 2018/2019 and 2020/2021, including a decrease in the number of imports refused (from 13 to 10) and a drop in detected infringements (from 37 to 35). The number of serious infringement proceedings opened in 2020/2021 was 4, resulting in three monetary fines and one seizure of merchandise.
• The number of inspections of third-country fishing vessels in Spanish ports decreased to 290 in the 2020/2021 period. This is attributed to COVID-19 impacts in 2020 and the effects of Brexit in 2021, as the high frequency of UK-flagged vessels entering Galician ports makes mandatory inspection of all such vessels a practical hurdle.
• Spain has updated its legal and administrative framework, including the adoption of a procedural guide for imports from the UK following Brexit, the expansion of designated ports in the Canary Islands, Galicia, and the Basque Country, and the approval of the Draft Law on Sustainable Fisheries and Fisheries Research on May 17, 2022.
• The report identifies significant decreases in the number of verification requests sent to third-country authorities and the number of catch certificate validation refusals, which Spanish authorities attribute to improved communication and a better understanding of the system by importers and third countries.

APA

Marchais, Q., & Peretti, F. (2023). Spain – A progress report on a decade of combating IUU fishing: an update from the 2020/2021 biennial report. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/tx0h4dxm/spain-a-progress-report-on-a-decade-of-combating-iuu-fishing.pdf

Chicago

Marchais, Quentin, and Francesca Peretti. Spain – A progress report on a decade of combating IUU fishing: an update from the 2020/2021 biennial report. ClientEarth, 2023. https://www.clientearth.org/media/tx0h4dxm/spain-a-progress-report-on-a-decade-of-combating-iuu-fishing.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Marchais |first1=Quentin |last2=Peretti |first2=Francesca |title=Spain – A progress report on a decade of combating IUU fishing: an update from the 2020/2021 biennial report |publisher=ClientEarth |date=January 2023 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/tx0h4dxm/spain-a-progress-report-on-a-decade-of-combating-iuu-fishing.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{marchais2023spain, author = {Marchais, Quentin and Peretti, Francesca}, title = {{Spain – A progress report on a decade of combating IUU fishing: an update from the 2020/2021 biennial report}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2023}, month = jan, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/tx0h4dxm/spain-a-progress-report-on-a-decade-of-combating-iuu-fishing.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }