Cacciatore, Federica; Eliantonio, Mariolina --- "Fishing in troubled waters? Shared enforcement of the Common Fisheries Policy and accountability gaps" [2017] ELECD 1519; in Scholten, Miroslava; Luchtman, Michiel (eds), "Law Enforcement by EU Authorities" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 168

Book Title: Law Enforcement by EU Authorities

Editor(s): Scholten, Miroslava; Luchtman, Michiel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786434623

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Fishing in troubled waters? Shared enforcement of the Common Fisheries Policy and accountability gaps

Author(s): Cacciatore, Federica; Eliantonio, Mariolina

Number of pages: 27

Abstract/Description:

The management of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has been one of the earliest concerns of the EU. While establishing a decentralised system with most responsibilities falling within the competence of Member States’ authorities, the EU also felt the need to create a dedicated agency, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), endowed with mostly coordinating and some enforcement powers. This chapter seeks to examine the shared enforcement mechanisms between EFCA and the NCAs in the CFP and assess whether they are supported by adequate accountability mechanisms. In order to do so, we examine the relationship between EFCA and two selected MS, Italy and the UK. The chapter shows that there exist two shared enforcement mechanisms, one concerning the formulation and development of the general inspection policies, another referring to the cooperation between EFCA, which has the power to carry out inspections on EU vessels in international waters, and the NCAs, which are in charge of the sanctioning phase. Such mechanisms show some gaps of judicial accountability, which however could be considered as compensated for through a complete system of political accountability.