The control and enforcement of fisheries in Poland

The report assesses Poland's compliance with the EU Control Regulation and IUU Regulation. While the 2014 Marine Fisheries Act established a necessary legal framework, the report finds that the system is overly complicated and lacks transparency. Data from 2016 indicates a surprisingly low rate of detected infringements compared to the number of inspections, suggesting a lack of effectiveness in detection or a lack of political will to implement sanctions. The report recommends improving inspection quality, providing guidance on administrative sanctions, increasing public access to the national register of infringements, and simplifying the legal framework.

• The Polish fisheries enforcement system shows a disproportionately low number of detected infringements relative to the volume of inspections conducted, raising concerns about the effectiveness of these controls.
• Since the 2015 implementation of the new legal framework, no serious infringements of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) have been established, which may be due to a lack of understanding by authorities or a lack of political will.
• The national register of infringements, required by the EU Control Regulation, is not publicly accessible, which contradicts the transparency principles of the CFP Basic Regulation.
• The Polish legal framework for fisheries enforcement is described as overly complex and internally inconsistent due to misleading cross-references and poor drafting of implementing regulations.
• Poland's infringement rates for land and sea inspections are approximately 2%, which is significantly lower than in other Member States, such as France, where rates are around 18% at sea and 8% on landing.
• The 2014 Marine Fisheries Act introduced a penalty point system for both operators and masters, with the possibility of suspending or withdrawing fishing licences upon reaching specific point thresholds.
• Financial sanctions for serious infringements are generally set at five times the value of the fishery products obtained, increasing to between eight and twenty times the value for repeat offenders within a five-year period.
• The Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation delegates monitoring and enforcement tasks to three District Inspectorates of Marine Fisheries located in Szczecin, Słupsk, and Gdynia.

APA

Szczodrowska, A. (2016). The control and enforcement of fisheries in Poland. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/xtkb34l5/the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-poland-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

Szczodrowska, Anna. The control and enforcement of fisheries in Poland. ClientEarth, 2016. https://www.clientearth.org/media/xtkb34l5/the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-poland-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Szczodrowska |first1=Anna |title=The control and enforcement of fisheries in Poland |publisher=ClientEarth |date=November 2016 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/xtkb34l5/the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-poland-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{szczodrowska2016control, author = {Szczodrowska, Anna}, title = {{The control and enforcement of fisheries in Poland}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/xtkb34l5/the-control-and-enforcement-of-fisheries-in-poland-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }