EU pelagic industry calls for trade measures after mackerel deal

THE EU’s pelagic fishing industry has described the recent sharing deal on Northeast Atlantic mackerel by the UK, Faroe, Norway and Iceland as “institutionalised overfishing” and has called for “trade measures” against these countries.

Earlier this week, the four coastal states announced they had reached a three-year agreement on mackerel quota and management, and called on the EU and Greenland to join the arrangement. https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2025/12/16/pelagic-industry-calls-join-coastal/

But in a strongly worded statement by the European Association of Fish Producers Organisations (EAPO), its spokesperson Tim Heddema claimed companies in the EU were now paying the price for overfishing by others.

And he called on the EU to act against these countries as “threats of action are no longer enough”.

“This development causes deep concerns and raises many questions,” Heddema said.

“How will the EU deal with the differences in catch limits and protect EU fishing rights? In any case, we need a course of action from the EU side and we need it now.

“It is extremely distressing to note that while the EU is still the chair of the mackerel consultations, it has lately not managed to be involved in actual negotiations. We are in a deep crisis.”

The EAPO said the EU must make full use of its leverage as the primary market for seafood exports from other coastal states.

“Concrete action against the continuous and repeated overfishing is urgently needed, up to and including trade measures,” the organisation’s statement said.

The EU’s pelagic industry also calls on the EU and other coastal states to reconvene without delay and negotiate a fair and equitable comprehensive arrangement between all six coastal states.

The collective share of the four parties now totals almost 80 per cent, the EAPO said, leaving not enough space to accommodate the EU claim based on historical, sustainable track records and legitimate economic interest.

“EU fishers continue to pay the price for years of irresponsible behaviour by other countries, facing a sharp reduction and an unlevel playing field in mackerel fishing opportunities for 2026 and long-term damage to their market position,” the statement continued.

But Simon Collins of the Shetland Fishermen’s Association, who participated in the talks that led to the four-way agreement, said the EU had never tried to seriously be part of the negotiations and had scored a “spectacular own goal.”

“Those of us that have been involved in almost four years of tough negotiations on a sharing arrangement for mackerel will all know how reluctant the EU has been to engage in any serious fashion the whole way,” he told Shetland News.

“They have combined righteous indignation at the lack of a comprehensive deal with adamant refusal to do what is required to join one – and now find themselves out on a limb.

“We can only hope that their obvious embarrassment at a spectacular own goal will prompt a change of strategy – and a sense of responsibility.”

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