The European Commission has followed up on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Stop finning – Stop the trade”, which asked it for action to end international trade of loose shark fins. From January 2025, the Commission will step up its monitoring of the shark product trade through 13 new tariff codes for sharks and their fins.
These codes will enable the tracking of the most traded shark species, including the blue shark and shortfin mako. The Commission will closely monitor import and export data based on these new codes, and the data will be made available to the public through the Eurostat international trade database.
The Commission has also completed the first stage of its impact assessment on a trade ban on detached fins and a range of alternative policy measures, conducted in response to the ECI. This first stage consisted a public consultation, held between February and July 2024, which included a call for evidence, an open public consultation and a dedicated stakeholders’ consultation event.
The online consultation confirmed a high level of public interest in shark management and protection, with 3,455 replies submitted mostly by EU citizens. The results show a clear expectation for the EU to take additional action to protect sharks.
This consultation will guide further impact assessment work, including an external study that will be carried out over 2025.
In the meantime, the Commission will continue its efforts to enforce existing EU measures and improve traceability. It is also leading global efforts to implement conservation and management measures for shark species and introduce a worldwide ban of shark finning.
Over one-third of shark species are threatened with extinction, i.e. considered critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable, with the European Commission acknowledging that shark finning is one of the main threats for the conservation of these species.
Since 2003, the Shark Finning Regulation has prohibited shark finning on EU vessels.
The European citizens’ Stop finning initiative was registered in January 2020 and submitted to the Commission in January 2023.
More stringent enforcement of existing policy measures has been a major part of the Commission commitments taken in the follow-up to the ECI, together with an international outreach to promote a worldwide ban on shark finning and reduction of shark fins’ consumption. Beyond this, the Commission has committed to give full consideration to potential trade measures requested and assess their potential environmental, economic and social impacts. This is now being done in the framework of the ongoing impact assessment.
