WWF/CFFA/Greenpeace Joint Statement on Solomon Islands FPA

Letter adressed to the PECH Committee on Fisheries, European Parliament:

Dear Member of the PECH Committee,

The Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA), WWF and Greenpeace would like to express their support for the Committee’s Draft Recommendation regarding a Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) between the European Union and Solomon Islands that will be voted in Committee in September.

However, we urge the Committee to press the EC for higher standards in future FPAs. Improvements should focus on:

 Greater transparency; 
 Sustainability and equity of resource exploitation; 
 Coherence with development policy; 
 Integrating the regional dimension and 
 Phasing out subsidies.

It is essential that the EU show leadership in ensuring that its fishery agreements result in improved fishery management capacity for its partners. Therefore, we strongly recommend you to flag these crucial principles for coming FPA negotiations. (Our recommendations are spelled out in more detail in the attached document).

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these recommendations with you.

Thank you very much in advance.

Sincerely,

Béatrice Gorez (CFFA) cffa.cape@scarlet.be,

Jessica Landman (WWF) jlandman@wwfepo.org and

Saskia Ritchartz (Greenpeace) saskia.richartz@greenpeace.org

EU-Solomon FPA Recommendations

EU-Solomon islands agreement discussed in the Parliament

This agreement is being discussed and will be the first EU-ACP agreement to be to approved by the European Parliament (by the end of this year) since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. CFFA considers that this is an opportunity to promote a new approach based on the coherence of EU policies, especially with respect to local/regional sustainable fisheries development, with an emphasis on fishing communities rights and social and environmental issues.

Link to the text of the agreement