Green light for fishing agreement with Guinea-Bissau – The European Union’s Fisheries Commission has given the green light to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the EU and Guinea-Bissau. The agreement secures access to the African country’s rich waters for the next five years, but raises questions about the real balance between commercial exploitation and environmental responsibility.
The agreement, provisionally applied from September 2024, was approved with 19 votes in favour, 4 against and 2 abstentions. The total economic package exceeds EUR 100 million, taking into account the EU’s direct contribution (EUR 85 million) and the licence and catch fees that ship-owners will have to pay to the Guinea-Bissau administration. An important figure for a country that relies on fishing for at least 3% of its GDP and to sustain its fragile public finances.
But while the agreement guarantees economic certainty for ship-owners from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and France, with access to annual quotas of 3,500 GRT of cephalopods and 3,700 GRT of shrimp, as well as authorisation for 41 European tuna vessels, the structural criticalities that have always accompanied these partnerships remain unresolved.
Members of the Fisheries Commission have made it clear: without more transparent governance and effective monitoring, the sustainability of fishing in Guinea-Bissau will remain only on paper. The country has long been the focus of concern for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, with opaque dynamics involving third country fleets, flags of convenience and deliberately complex business systems to evade regulations.
The EU has attempted to strengthen its position by allocating EUR 4.5 million per year to improving sustainable fisheries management and strengthening local control and surveillance capacities. An investment that should support the fishing communities of Guinea-Bissau, but which risks being ineffective without a real leap forward in the collection and processing of catch data. The proposal to set up an electronic reporting system is a first step, but a much more concrete commitment will be needed to ensure transparency and fairness.
The next step is set for April, with the vote in plenary. Until then, the debate remains open: will the agreement between the EU and Guinea-Bissau be a true model of sustainable fishing or yet another compromise in favour of a resource-hungry industry?
Guinea-Bissau’s waters harbour abundant reserves, but also enormous challenges. At this point, Europe is called upon to prove that sustainability is not just a buzzword, but a clear course to follow.
Green light for fisheries agreement with Guinea-Bissau
