EU backs global fisheries agreement

The deal, adopted after nearly two decades of complex negotiations, aims to eliminate harmful subsidies that contribute to overfishing, helping to secure sustainable fisheries and ocean resilience for generations to come.

“The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is crucial for ensuring that fisheries subsidies take sustainability as their core objective,” said Costas Kadis, Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans.

“This landmark agreement is a key deliverable of our ambition to protect the ocean, as embodied in our European Ocean Pact.”

This binding and enforceable agreement targets subsidies that fuel illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, as well as all subsidies for fishing on unregulated high seas.

“It will provide additional means to tackle harmful practices such as illegal fishing and avoid harming the ocean and fish stocks on which the livelihoods of coastal communities around the world depend,” added Kadis.

The agreement also activates the WTO Fish Fund, designed to help developing and least-developed countries implement the new rules. The EU and its member states are leading contributors to this initiative, supporting global capacity building and sustainable fishing practices.

With 111 WTO members having ratified the agreement, the EU urged remaining countries, especially major fishing nations, to join. Implementation will now begin through legislative updates and transparency mechanisms overseen by the newly established WTO Committee on Fisheries Subsidies.