The European Union Commission on Friday warned Togo and Guinea for not taking sufficient measures to fight illegal fishing. At a press briefing on Thursday in Brussels, the EU commissioner for Fishing, Mrs Maria Damanaki, said EU envisaged trade sanctions against eight countries because of insufficient measures on monitoring, control and surveillance of fishing in their territorial waters.
In a warning note to those countries, the EU Commission has set a reasonable deadline for them to take measures to tackle the situation and propose an action plan.
If the situation does not improve, EU could impose trade sanctions against those countries, including banning the export of fish to the European market, Mrs Damanaki said.
An official report says that illegal fishing activities represent total value of about 10 billion Euro per year, or 19% of the overall value fishing in the world.
Actualité Afrique – Africa News 2012