The European Commission recently published its Implementing Regulation as regards the revised Fisheries Control Regulation. This Implementing Regulation focuses on the revised Control Regulation applying Art. 55 and data collection for recreational fisheries catches. The European Anglers Alliance (EAA) believes that mandatory reporting of catches will help understand the impact of recreational fishing on fish stocks. However, recreational fishing's assessment should also consider economic and social benefits, not just environmental effects.
European Commission's Implementing Regulation establishes a framework for applying Art. 55 and data collection of recreational fisheries
On 12 February 2025, the European Commission published its Implementing Regulation regarding Art. 55 targeting control of recreational fisheries catches.
“This new implementing regulation has been adopted to harmonise the reporting process for recreational fishing data from Member States to the Commission. (it) will help establish a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the current recreational fishing landscape” writes the Commission (Source).
In its press release, the European Commission shares to be developing “RecFishing”, an electronic system that will facilitate data collection and catch reporting across the EU, in collaboration with EU coastal countries. It also argues to"collaborate with EU countries, the scientific community and the recreational fisheries sector to implement these measures”.
In the Implementing Regulation, the Commission outlines the further definition of how the reporting of catches by Recreational Fisheries Sector should be reported. This under Art. 2 and Art. 3 of the document. The document now holds a specification of the subcategories of the different types of marine recreational fisheries in annex 1, a long time want of our sector. (Link) The Implementing Regulation will apply to all EU Member States from 10 January 2026 onwards.
EU Fisheries Control revision - overview
On 30 May 2018, the Commission proposed the revision of the fisheries control system, aimed at modernising and simplifying the rules for monitoring fisheries and ensuring compliance with the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The proposal also intends to bring to date a control system conceived before the 2013 CFP reform. On recreational fisheries specifically, it proposed, amongst others:
After long inter-institutional negotiations, the co-legislators reached an agreement on 30 May 2023. The act entered into force 20 days later, thus on 9 January 2024.
EAA remains clear: socio-economic impact should be measures as well by EU authorities
The European Anglers Alliance (EAA) expects that the mandatory reporting of catches by recreational fishers will contribute to a better understanding of the real impact of recreational fisheries on fish stocks.
However, measuring sustainable recreational fishing's impact must go beyond environmental effects and include its economic and social benefits. Angling generates thousands of jobs in coastal communities and provides significant health benefits for anglers.
The management of recreational fisheries – e.g. by TACs and quota allocations – should not be about catches only. The economic value of recreational fisheries should be considered whenever restrictions are proposed, so decision-makers will be better aware of the negative impact these restrictions could have on the recreational fisheries sector and the dependent (tackle-) industry.
EAA therefore underlines that EU Institutions and Member States must take into account the socio-economic benefits of angling when developing the “RecFishing” electronic reporting system. A data collection system on recreational fisheries ignoring the high socio-economic value of our sector is a one-sided approach leading towards one-sided management which should be avoided at all costs!
As the EU Commission allows Member States to develop their own online application, the EAA urges Member States to include in their national set-up the data on socio-economic performance. Member States must use their prerogative to create an own application taking into account the needs of the EU's angling community.
This especially as it is unacceptable to overlook the socio-economic impact of recreational fisheries within the Blue economy. Our high-selective and low-impact activity - sustaining at least 100.000 FTE jobs and an annual turnover of 10.5 billion EUR - should be given similar attention as other EU fisheries sectors, such as aquaculture and commercial fisheries.
More information
For more information on the EAA and EFTTA’s position on the Fisheries Control revision,
click here