On the occasion of the World Fisheries Day, the FAO and the Holy See joined forces once again to host a successful event focusing international attention on the fair treatment and well-being of fishers around the globe. Europêche, on behalf of the EU fishing industry, participated together with international organizations, government representatives, trade unions and relevant stakeholders in this year’s event titled ‘Labour rights are human rights: working together to ensure the rights of fishers – fighting trafficking and forced labour in the fishing sector’. United Nations specialized agencies in fisheries and their Member states were urged to work together to promote the ratification, implementation and enforcement of internationally agreed social standards to support the livelihoods of 38 million fishers in the planet.

After 9 days of intensive discussions on Atlantic tunas at the plenary meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), the results are perceived as being poor and unsatisfactory by the European fishing fleet. Europêche notes with great disappointment that ICCAT has not been able to reach a consensus to revise the management plan for tropical tunas, in particular for bigeye tuna, which is considered to be overexploited by ICCAT’s scientific committee (SCRS).

We co-hosted an event with our social partner for fisheries and an MEP. We presented our legal proposals for a safer, healthier and more worker-friendly fisheries sector in Europe.