MEPS GIVE GREEN LIGHT TO COOK ISLANDS FISHERIES PROTOCOL

MEPs have given the green light to the new fisheries protocol between the European Union and the Cook Islands.

The European Parliament plenary supported a new protocol implementing the EU-Cook islands fisheries partnership with 477 votes to 37 and 117 abstentions on Tuesday. The new 3-year protocol allows four EU seiners – three from Spain and one from France – to fish for tuna in the Cook Islands waters for 100 days with a possible extension of a further 110 days. The EU´s financial contribution comes to 700 000 per year. Half of this amount covers the fishery resources the EU has access to, while the other half aims at developing sectoral fisheries policy in the country.

Protocol focuses on sustainable development of the local fisheries sector, stresses the need to monitor the implementation to tackle illegal and unreported fishing and to extend the knowledge about local marine ecosystems. This should be done using the mechanism for checking and reporting catches.

The protocol is believed to have a significant strategic value being the only active agreement in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. This area is known for the healthiest tuna stocks in the world, which are also key for the local development of the artisanal fisheries improving fishers´ income and development of infrastructure for processing and marketing fish.

Local fishing sector represents 3 % of the Cook Islands’ GDP. As other EU implementation protocols, the EU – Cook Islands agreement it also promotes practices combating illegal and unreported fishing.

Following the vote, Parliament´s rapporteur Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar (EPP, PT) said: “We support this protocol which provides continuity of access for the European fleet to Cook Islands waters, and at the same time plays a part in the development of the local sector, providing added value for the part of the population that depends on the fisheries sector with full regard for the marine environment and fisheries resources.”

Background

In 2016 the first protocol on the implementation of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the EU and the Cook Islands entered into force. The new protocol, which was now adopted by the Parliament, was signed on 28 July 2021.