In 2004, in a bid to answer widespread criticism about the ‘pay, fish and go’ access agreements it was signing with ACP (African Caribbean Pacific) countries, the EU proposed a new deal: fisheries partnerships agreements (FPAs). FPAs have now been in place for more than three years. Are they delivering the hoped for changes… and if not, why not?
Since FPAs came to life, EU fleets active in developing countries’ EEZs have been confronted with ever decreasing profitability due to over-exploitation of the target stocks, and rising costs – fuel in particular. They must face increasing competition for an ever-diminishing resource base, particularly with other long distance fleets, notably from China or Korea. Given this, it can be argued that FPAs, like the previous access agreements, serve both to diminish fleet access costs and to secure long term access to developing countries resources. But, this may still be to the detriment of sustainable development.