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hi everyone we are here for the second webinar of the 2019 EU law and sustainable developments webinar series together with me professor Pavoni the academic coordinator of the you law and sustainable development module hosted by the university of siena and our guest professor Gabriel Atlanta from the University of Colonia in Spain associate professor of public international law there director of its University Institute for European studies and one of the one of European great experts on international law of the sea the new Common Fisheries Policy and and sustainable development issues we are very glad to be here with her and I will just now give the floor to professor Tony for a short introduction of this webinar as usual we'll have presentation and then space for questions and comments afterwards professor pavani yes we are we are delighted to have the real al anta with us today for us as mario batali has just said this is the second webinar of our Germany module with respect to Gabriella I would like to just recall what that has said that Gabriella is a professor of international law and international relations at the University of aquilonia in Spain and that she's also the director of the of the local university Institute of European studies the Institute salvador de madre Matta yoga and what I want to stress is that this is for us is supposed to be a best practice when it comes to coordination and collaboration with other zamboni holders found holders because the Gabriella wata is the academic coordinator of a Germany module our University which is devoted to the European Union's integrated maritime policy I'm particularly glad we have Gabriella with us she's a she's also friend a colleague then we usually collaborate with she's she's an expert on maritime issues or maritime legal and policy issues with a focus on the EU Common Fisheries policies she has published extensively in these areas I would just like to recall a recent book by Gabriella on the law of the sea and the rights of vulnerable persons which is a book that I recently read and it's very interesting so we are particularly honored that we're an expert with us which can tell us more about the European Union's approach to the implementation of SDG 14 on life below water so the conservation of sustainable fisheries and the management of sustainable fisheries and so I think this is just the time to give the floors Gabriella for a webinar next forum with us and the floor is yours yes absolutely just one second for me to share the screen so that Professor on I can share the presentation there you go now you should have the presenters world okay thank you very much afternoon to everyone thank you professor Popa nice thank you for being inviting me to be part of webinar series that we are in charge ways in the framework of the European of the jamuna module you are the holder of the University of Virgina and I am very glad I'm very honored to be part of this of this project it is an honor of course to talk in the framework of this series I'm very glad that Professor Falcone has given me this opportunity as you just mentioned it is a new manifestation of our collaboration and joint activities now you the framework of the Gemini actions please here as we know 30 years well 30 years ago Simon actions have been created in my opinion they have been a real success for the European Union as an Erasmus project has has been in relation to students selling well as the topic of my intervention the title of my intervention is the European Union in sustainable fisheries partnership agreement I would like to thank professor pitoni and Daniel as well for their kind words regarding my research felt in relation to the law of the sea come on fisheries policies and sound sub secured thank you very much I will try to share with you the PowerPoint presentation I have prepared for my intervention I think it would be easier for everyone to to see the main ideas of my intervention I hope it will work just a moment please let's see could you tell me please favorite everything is alright are you able to see my slide yes it's working well yes okay so as I have just mentioned the title of my intervention it's the European Union and sustainable fisheries partnership agreements during our intervention I will try to focus on three main issues firstly I will talk very briefly on the European Union and the Seas and oceans secondly I will refer to the European Union external demand is a framework of its Common Fisheries Policy and thirdly I will focus on the sustainable fisheries partnership agreements in this regard the question with this main topic of my intervention actually I will start with basic considerations regarding this agreement after that I will refer to the legal basis and I will finish my intervention with the examples of sustainable fisheries partnership agreements already signed by the European Union some of them of course are seeding force some of them are adornment and I will try to give an overview of these agreements well the European Union as we know is surrounded by numerous islands four seas and two oceans Europe is a peninsula so it's a mighty me issues and all gasp it's related to the seas and oceans are quite relevant for this International Organization for example the European Union coast is larger than the one of the United States and of Russia more than two-thirds of the European Union borders erimar are Maritimes but when we refer to the European Union Coast we have to take into account that the European Union that a few of its member states have areas that are in in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean Sea we know the regions as the outermost regions so the European Union has a very relevant present presence on the international stage relation to the Seas and oceans for the European citizens furthermore seas and oceans are very relevant as no European citizen leaves more than several hundred kilometers far from the coast and almost half of the EU population a leaves less than 50 kilometers far from the coast therefore the European Union has lots of maritime interests there are very diverse and affected as a whole these all these issues are quite relevant if we want to refer to the European Union as one of the main international actors in the spell in relation to the Seas and oceans undoubtedly the European Union is an active actor and generally speaking is an active actor relation to the marine environment as well the European Union has been a very important actor for the transformation of international law of the sea as we as it is known it is an international organization and it has legal international personality nowadays ing to article 47 or the treaty on the European Union but at the same time the European Union is quite conditioned by the principle of confer thus ing to article 5 paragraph 2 of the treaty of the on the European Union the European Union is entitled to do only what it member state wanted for it to do at the same time as I have just mentioned the European Union is one of the most important coastal entity and it has one of the largest long-distance Freight therefore fishing activities fish stocks are issues that are quite relevant for the European Union activity as a whole but as we as we know fishing stocks are quite limited nowadays it's very open Union waters waters which are under the sovereignty or gestation of the European Union member states have their own fish stocks but they are not enough for the European currency humans therefore the European Union has to to fish in other word in other seas and oceans it is quite relevant to to mention that almost 25 percent of the European fishing actors and in order that are not under the EU jurisdiction approximatively a percent of the new fishing captures are due to fisheries agreements with some countries and 20% of the you fishing captures are doing in the high seas basically in areas where regional fisheries management organization exists we have to take into account as well that the European Union represent is the if the first fish market in the world and it is the third fishing power globally having an important transformer sector of fishing so the king union is quite conditioned by the situation of the Seas and oceans by the environmental status of those seas and ocean where it's a fishing fleet is a developing its activity after the adoption of the 1982 Nations Convention on the law of the sea a new green area appeared on the international stage nowadays under current international law these economic exclusive serves are very relevant for the European Union activity in the field of fishing why well the answer is quite easy ninety percent of the fishing resources globally are in the 'yes' of developing countries this situation is very much conditioned by different provisions of the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea in the following minute I will refer to three articles of this international treaty that condition in some way or another the general framework of international fisheries agreements signed by the European Union with the third object for example article 56 paragraph 1 of the unclose imaginations convention of the law of the sea is that the coastal state has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting conserving and managing the natural resources whether living or nonliving of the waters suffered jettisoned to the seabed and of seabed and it's subsoil furthermore article 61 of the same convention the coastal state shall determine the lower case of the living resources in its exclusive economic zone and in addition article 62 paragraph 1 of the unclose contains the obligation for the coastal state to promote the objective of optimum utilization of the living resources in its easy without prejudice to the article 61 I have just mentioned in addition article 62 paragraph 2 the coastal state has the obligation to determine its capacity to harbor some resources of the inside where the coastal state does not have the capacity to harvest the entire along one page it shall through agreement and this is very important under my view or other arrangements and pursuant to the terms conditions laws and Nations refers to in other paragraph give other state access to the surplus of the allowable patch is precisely in relation to this possibility that coastal state had in the field of fishery where the local union is able to sign international fisheries agreement in order to to better to understand better the international fisheries agreement that the European Union is entitled to sign with their countries it is important to understand the limit and some aspects of the external dimension of the European Union Common Fisheries Policy well the European Union since the 70s above all has a policy entitled Common Fisheries Policy but contain all the legal requirements for the European Union in order to sign international fisheries three DS this Common Fisheries Policy started in the field of agreement international agreements that's the main issue of my intervention was starting November 1976 the European Union has a community fishing zone of 200 Maritimes miles in its North Atlantic coast and in the North Sea well since then the exploitation of the fisheries resources is any other sizes Beiser countries fishermen should be governed by fisheries agreements signed between the European Union or the economic or Dec at the time and the third countries concerned of course this was decided in 1976 but in the last 40 years more or less the provision adopted by the council in November 7 1976 has we has been completed by other provision provided by the European Union from a primary law as well by the European Union secondary law for example ing to article 3 paragraph 1 D of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union this international organization has exclusive competence only in relation to the conservation of marine biology sources under its policy in addition article 4 paragraph 2 letter D of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union the European Union has no competence with the member state in the field of Agriculture and Fisheries excluding the conservation of marine violated resources well of course the European Union has exclusive competence as I have just mentioned in addition part three articles 38 to 42 on the treaty on the functioning of the European Union the European the treaty on the functioning of the European Union refers to fisheries together with agriculture so the EU primary law contains some limits to the European Union activity on the international stage in relation to fisheries moreover the European Union secondary law contains a lot of regulations regarding common Fisheries Policy that refer to external dimension of the European Union is this fair I will refer in the following minutes only to a regulation 1380 adopted in 2013 which is the framework of regulation on Common Fisheries Policy because the other one was complete this main regulation and of course there are many others regulation that referred to fisheries and particularly to international fisheries agreements as I will explain to you in the following minute so just to see where the fisheries agreement signed by the European Union with their countries find I would like to mention you that the main manifestations of the European Union external Fisheries Policy referred my four main aspects first the fisheries agreement side with the country second the Oconee relations with different regional fisheries management organizations in for the fishing activities into the high seas third the fight against I efficient and fourth the adoption of new norms of international law of the sea as nowadays there is an international conference developing its work in the framework of the United Nations relation with marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdictions of state but telling me focusing me in the verminator also sustainable fisheries partnership agreements I would like to mention from the very beginning that two kind of international agreement that exist in the field of Fisheries on the one hand public access agreements or international fisheries agreements or sustainable fisheries partnership agreements refer to those access agreements concluded between the European Union on behalf of its member or with certain state and on the other hand we have private access agreements that means access agreements concluded between private companies based in the European Union member state and third States I will refer only to public access agreement those agreements that are signed by the European Union with third countries in order to have access to the e set of zones third countries in addition to public access agreements we have to take into account that there are two kinds of agreement again on the one side we have northern agreements and on the other side we had sustainable partnership of Fisheries partnerships agreements the north of an agreement as those agreements signed by the European Union with Norway's Iceland and Fire Islands which are enjoyed management of Fisheries of shared stocks and on the other hand sustainable fisheries partnerships agreement refers refer to bilateral fisheries agreements consisting of financial and technical support in exchange for fishing rights is easy of partner countries so if you want to be to be very precisely you have to take into account that the sustainable fisheries partnership agreements refers only to these bilateral fisheries agreement signed by the European Union with third countries just to give you a few ideas on this partnerships agreement I would like to mention you that ing to these agreements the European Union gives financial and technical support in exchange for fishing rights generally with developing countries the only exception is with Greenland actually they give priority to local artisanal slate they protect endangered species by name discards and targeting surplus productivity only and this is very important these agreements are restricted only 200 target species well if we take into account this later consideration I can divide the sustainable fisheries financial agreements into two main categories the first category referred refers only to tune agreements and the second category referred refers to mix agreement so depending on the case we will have gene agreements I will have mix agreements in the field of Fisheries just to refer to the legal basis of the sustainable fisheries management sustainable fisheries partnership agreement sorry I would like to to stress that this agreement are international treaties signed by the European Union Edison country ing to this was such an agreement the third country authorizes the you fishing vessels to fish into its waters and such an agreement will be made up by three parts there is a framework agreement assigned between both parties various protocols were specific financial technical conditions are included and they are complemented by an annex that refer to a specific aspect and develops more in details the framework agreement and the protocols provisions oh there is no aspect including included in Indians well it is very relevant and my view to mention the exclusivity clause that European fishermen have when they're fishing they are doing their activities in orders that had not under the jurisdiction of sovereignty of the European Union member states well there is a case of the European Court of Justice from Luxembourg published in to South in October 2014 it was a judgment provided relation to request for a preliminary ruling presented by Swedish Court and ing to this jump judgement the fisheries partnership agreement must be interpreted as excluding any possibility for community vessels to carry out fishing activities in Moroccan fishing zones it was about the fisheries partnership agreement signed with Morocco at that time on the basis of a license issued by the Moroccan authorities without the intervention of the competent European health this mean that if the European Union has assigned sustainable fisheries partnership agreement with the Sur country no other EU vessel is able to sign a private access agreement with broken or with a third country always and always the European Union fishermen fishermen will be conditioned by the terms of the sustainable fisheries partnership agreement signed by the European in order to understand better what a sustainable fisheries Partnership Agreement means nowadays under the current Common Fisheries Policy legal braces I would like to mention you know that there are three articles from the regulation number 1380 adopted in 2013 namely article 4 paragraph one paragraph 37 which provides us a definition of such an agreement article 31 refers to principle and objectives applied to this agreement and finally article 32 refers to financial assistance of course this definition provided by article 4 paragraph 1 is relevant in order to to understand how international fisheries agreements as well known till 2013 have transformed - to exploit in a sustainable way fishing stock for example ing to this article sustainable fisheries partnership agreement means an intern international agreement concluded through the first aid for the purpose of obtaining access to waters and resources in order to sustainably exploit a share of the of marine biological resources in exchange for financial compensation from the Union which may include secretarial support call they are detained that 10 paragraphs in this article 31 regarding principal objectives sustainability is mentioned several times I will pass us through all these provisions and finally the article 32 refers to financial assistance and this is a highly topical issues because when the last reform of the Common Fisheries Policy was adopted it was a large debate on if this fisheries agreement still have to be part of the Common Fisheries Policy or if they still or they should be a part of the European Union cooperation for development policy I think in under my view these fisheries agreements have to be a part of the Common Fisheries Policy is what happens now they let's say in the future what one decision will be adopted by the European Union they came to account all these aspect all these legal provisions we have to ask ourself if there if there there is a real surplus of fishing stocks at international level in order to to offer it the you fishing fleet the possibility to catch the fish stocks as I mentioned a few minutes ago only cash surplus not needed by the local population and identified surplus by means of my scientific advice and of the relevant information exchanged between the Union and the Sur country about the total fishing effort on the affected stock by all flight are allowed to this sustainable fisheries partnership agreement the European Union is entitled to to sign to science' agreement only with Democratic state this is a very sensitive issue in order to preserve it its opinion the European Union decided to introduce closed concerning respect for democratic principles and human rights by the third country which constitutes an essential element of such agreement of course again if you look at the fisheries agreement signed with Morocco while these issues are very sensitive undoubtedly under my view that lots of benefits of this fisheries agreement under my view they promote sustainable fisheries because there is a bilateral joint scientific committee established ing to such reminds only surplus stocks fish nuts on this agreement reinforce transparency encourage partnership they fight against I love fishing ensure equal rules they create legal certainty for the you fleet operators and of course for partner countries these agreements are quite relevant here we have a man with the sustainable fisheries partnership agreement as we know them nowadays since 2013 and we have this map for me is very visual in order to see the number of the International fisheries agreement cited by the european community at that time in the 80s we had read on the fishing agreement signed at that time in a yellow we have the fishing agreement signed in 90s and now in green we can see the agreement sight since 2000 for what so we can see that the fishing interests for the European Union have changed in the last 3040 years more or less nowadays I will provide you some of us some information regarding the situation of the International fisheries agreement so we can see there are lots of Fisheries agreement science by the European Union with above all developing countries some of them are dormant they are not enforced anymore or a new agreement is a new protocol is negotiated and the most part of them are still in force in the following - in the next two slides I will give you the information regarding the situation of this agreement nowadays for example the European Union has around 10 fisheries agreements in force nowadays in the case of Cabo Verde a new protocol is negotiating nowadays and the legislative procedures are underway in the case of Kumaresh Comoros deployment was denounced and the protocol expired in 2016 I think that in the following months it will not be possible for the European Union to have a new agreement and a new protocol the agreement Oak Island is in forest the same ways Cote d'Ivoire actually it was adopted it was published by the Official Journal of the European Union a few months ago the protocol with Gabon expired in July 2016 and no negotiations are taking place nowadays with Greenland is this such an agreement within ambush without a new protocol is negotiated legislative procedures are under way for example a few days ago this month the the European Commission published the communication a proposal for regulation relation to agreement with Universal in the case of Kiribati the protocol is not enforced nowadays the same with Madagascar and Micronesia a Muslim being Saotome I am pleased and Solomon Islands in the case of Mauritania and Mauricio's their agreements are enforced Senegal as we shall are in the same situation and another case of Gambia Guinea Equatorial Guinea a new agreement and protocol are negotiated but I would like to the following taking all these information I would like to focus in the following minute very very briefly to the fisheries agreement signed by the European Union with Morocco as I am living in Spain I realize how important this agreement is for the Spanish fishermen especially from Andalusia well here we have a no an agreement well we have a the relation of the Nortons agreement signed as well but they are not enforced nowadays whisper away island Iceland and always as I mentioned a few minutes ago well very briefly a few words about the agreement of the fishery agreement signed by the European Union with Morocco well in the case of Morocco we know that there is a legal problem with international state years of Western Sahara under international law first Morocco and Spain don't share the same opinion on the legal state use of Western Sahara the European Union has the same position as Spain I will know to focus on the legal state years of Western Sahara under international law just I will refer only I mean like some conditioned consideration in relation to Fisheries aspect because it's a very controversial issue well the first agreements I by the rapini knows Morocco was in a was signed in 1995 since then new agreements and new protocols were negotiated for example a protocol adopted in 2013 has presented political problems and finally in July 2014 while Morocco decided to ratify the protocol but in the meantime with a case where there were several cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union in relation to Western Sahara and the water Addison's to each coast just to mentioning because it is the most relevant case relation to fisheries in February 2018 the Court of Justice of the European Union provided its judgment in the case Western Sahara campaign it was a preliminary ruling concerning the validity of the fishery fisheries partnership agreement signed by the European Union with Morocco in 2006 and to and also to the protocol in force from 2013 to year 2017 the court of justice from Luxembourg considered that those attacks were not applicable to the waters adjacent to the territory of Western Sahara and the most the waters of the most important waters for fisheries interest interest are not in the north part of Morocco but in the water that would correspond to Western Sahara so Western Sahara under international law is not as a part of Morocco of course Morocco forms it is a part of its territory is this decision this judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union has caused a lot of political problems diplomatic dispute immense a and finally both parts were able to negotiate the text of a sustainable fisheries partnership agreement in this case in July 2018 such an agreement was signed by both parties but after that the ratification procedures procedure has started by using the framework of the European Union and in Morocco and finally last month in March 2019 the opinion published in its Official Journal this this agreement is very important with this and I will finish my intervention with these considerations in relation to a Sahara was a new agreement had to take into account the court of justice judgment in February 2018 so is that an article was included into the sustainable fisheries partnership agreement that refers specifically to the fishing zone in order to know where the European Union fishing boats are entitled to fish and were not and at the end of the sustainable fisheries partnership agreement and an exchange of letters between those parties was introduced just to resume a lot the new sustainable fisheries partnership agreement reef refers to the waters of Western Sahara as well but this doesn't mean that the European Union recognizes Western Sahara is part of were local why because in the because the exchange of letters signed by both parties on 14th January this year most part affirm that they respect the court of justice judgment of 2018 on the adjacent waters of Western Sahara which are not under the Morocco sovereignty and this exchange of letter mentions that the Fisher Agreement is concluded without prejudice to the parties respective positions for example the European Union doesn't recognize the Morocco sovereignty on the Western Sahara and Morocco affirms that the Sahara region is an integral part of the national territory over which exercises full sovereignty in the same manner as for the rest of the national territory Morocco considered that any solution to this original dispute should be based based on its autonomy initiative the Morocco stipulated its position the European Union did the same the important is the important issue here is the European Union fishing fleet are developing their activity in Morocco and in the adjacent waters of Western Sahara ing to the provisions of the sustainable fisheries agreement that has just been published by the Official Journal of the European Union and of course take into account the sustainability considerations in the fender of fisheries these are the basic ideas I wanted to - to mention relation to the European Union sustainable fisheries the shipper agreement thank you very much grazie Mille and I'm a pure disposal for any consideration any question should you want to to make me thank you very much thank you very much professor Anita we are now back I've seen that we have a question from the chat but maybe first if professor pavani if you want to intervene and follow-up well to thank webinar I think she gave a very comprehensive overview of the importance of this of the external action of the European Union in the field of sustainable fisheries the conservation of oceans etc and she underlines very well how important that is the bull fisheries partnership a human in debt in that context that I just haven't actually rather than a broad broad interventional like to to make a quest to to ask a question like every other question about the last part I'm very much interested in the controversy between Morocco and the European Union regarding the territories of Western Sahara Randall commented on the judgments of the European Union regarding front for the front Polisario and the latest judgment on Western Sahara campaign the policy that the issue as you put it is not finally settled because this sustainable fisheries agreement with Morocco actually applies to the territory of Western Sahara but then we have this exchange of letters where they say they will respect the code of justice judgment so how come or such does not mean anything will they respect or not that with that the debt judgment because the the wording of the agreement is pretty clear in the sublight westerns are I don't understand this how they thought that they would solve this problem yeah yeah well thank you very much for your kind considerations I have that's Morocco issues while Morocco issues hard to say well they are very sensitive and I may be mean Spain and I know how important this fisheries agreement officially agreement is for Spanish fishermen yes it's very very controversial issue I have been surprised for example with from police are you against the counsel and counsel against Iran Poli sorry opals judgement I was quite surprised because of the very beginning in 2014 when from police REO brought the action before the Court of Justice of the European Union I thought that the court of justice would say that it didn't have jurisdiction you know that because from police are you didn't have active legitimation in order to bring such an action before the court of justice from maximum finally they accepted it was a very interesting judgment under my view because it made different considerations in relation to the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea not only relation to Common Fisheries Policy and a few months later the council introduced an action against that decision and finally the main argument was the previous judgment was an old basically and finally we were in 2016 I think Western complain decided to introduce reaction before one it was a preliminary ruling presented by the UK court before the Court of Justice and I like very much the opinion of the general advocate in this case but the decision the judgment was quite different and for me yeah I think that the the Court of Justice could focus more on the problem of Western Sahara and it contains only general references that if we are doing he loves a co common Fisheries Policy or international law generally speaking what is nothing new relation to this opposition and finally when I I wanted to see the sustainable fisheries partnership agreement and I was very happy that at the end of March the European finally published it sustainable fisheries and I wanted to see the problem of Western Sahara or the issue of Western Sahara how it has been resolved because the council and the European Parliament had to take into account that part of the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union is not possible to negotiate a new agreement without take into account the case law of justice from lack separate so the definition contained by article 1 paragrah age-reversing technical reasons Paris for 35 degrees 47 minutes and so on admissions that this definition shall not affect any negotiations under the limitation of the sea areas of coastal states bordering the fishing zone all the rights of third countries in general and at the end we have the exchange of letters that has been that was signed by both parties on 14th of January this year and you know if we look at the letter from the Union there is a reference to this situation that stipulates the fisheries agreement is concluded with our present eyes to the party's respective positions for the European Union references in the fisheries agreement to Moroccan laws and regulations are without prejudice to its position concerning the status of the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara whose adjacent waters are part of the fishing zone defining point edge of article 1 of the fisheries agreement and its right to self-determination so under my view the European Union doesn't recognize that Western Sahara belongs to Soros under such sovereignty of Morocco it was still recognized the right for Western Sahara to self-determination and it gives the floor to Spain if I may say to find a solution to negotiate with Morocco the maritime the limitation of their waters Intermatic Iranian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean because the most part the Canary Islands yeah so the opinion doesn't formally own legally recognized but Western Sahara is part of the territory of Morocco but at the same time the European Union needs the fish stocks and it's like well I don't recognize that Western Sahara is part of Morocco but I recognize that Morocco is entitled to to manage in some way the fishing activity in the waters of Western Sahara so it like a compromise solution in order to keep access for EU fishing vessels to together develop a fish developing their activity and so on this effect of course Spain a lot but there are many other countries they are around 10 you know I don't remember the exact number of EU member states which are entitled to to have access to fishing possibility into the waters of Western Sahara so I think that from a sustainable point of view of Fisheries stock it is a very good thing that the sustainable fisheries by our partnership agreement has been signed between the European Union and Morocco because I know generally speaking EU fishermen respect EU law because all important sections under EU law and under domestic law of the you Member States there are very example in Spain there are a lot of sanctions for fishermen who don't respect sustainable consideration in the field of fisheries so from a sustainable point of view of fisheries I think that this is this agreement is highly positive there are fishing boats there that are flying other flights not of the you member state and they are not so respectful with sustainable fisheries considerations for me it's a very positive issue and this exchange of letters gives a floor to the interested parties to negotiate to find a solution to the situation legal situation of Western Sahara under international law yeah yes maybe because we are running out of time so maybe two quick questions one I have and the other one is the one that's been asked on the chance maybe I'll start with that one and then I'll jump in with mine afterwards so the question that we received is it says hello what is the preliminary process that leads to the negotiation of fisheries partnership with how are specific partner countries chosen okay thank you for the question it is very interesting and it's a well there are different reasons whether European Union is take into account when he decides to start negotiating with the circuitry there are lots of technical reports regarding well fishing stocks are most vailable we know that some fish stocks are not so interesting from an economic point of view and other fish stocks which are very interesting from an economic point of view so depending on the interest economic interest of this fish fish stocks the European Union will start to negotiate such an agreement it is a long story and it's a large large process it depends on the economic and political situation of the third country as well for example I mentioned the agreement signed with Liberia Liberia well as we know a few years ago it was very much virtualized by Ebola and the European Union started to negotiate the signature of such an agreement because it was it was not such an agreement at that time with Liberia in order to have the economy of this country as the consequence of Ebola crisis because this partnership agreement of course if the access give the possibility to you fish and flesh to to fish to have access to fish stock in those waters but on the other hand disease agreement offers support for developing the economy of the third country one part goes one part of those phone funds go to the sector fishing sectors and other part goes to the general budget of country of the country so the European Union report under these agreements are significant very significant for many countries in some countries is almost the say the whole budget of that country so for example when of the locum community at that time signed the first agreement with Morocco Morocco didn't have an important fishing industry nowadays they are able to introduce fish products into the new market so fish fisheries agreement are very attractive for partner countries as well so there are different reasons in order to to design such a such an agreement we have to say at the same time at the beginning of my intervention I mentioned I made the difference between public access agreements and private access agreement a private access agreement is assigned with a country a third country that wasn't have an access a fisheries access agreement signed already signed with the European Union there are some states the term EU member states but are not interested that the European Union sign such an agreement sustainable fisheries partnership agreement is that country because they have already important economic interests there it happens with the Netherlands fishing industry interests for examples or for example Spain has very good relations with Namibia Namibia the south part of Africa has important fish stocks in the image is that and there are private agreements between Spanish companies and Namibian companies but there is no sustainable fisheries partnership agreement signed by the European Union with that country so that many very different interest when the opinion decide to start negotiations with the south country in this field of course super okay so we are already a bit over time so maybe I'll just make it very quickly with with my question and then we can we can wrap it up if I can just summarize it I was interested to hear maybe a bit more from you on some of them sort of you know let's say recent developments in terms of sustainable fisheries partnership agreements and on the one hand I'm talking about the report in 2015 there was report by the European Union Court of Auditors on the sustainability of fisheries partnership agreements there was a bit critical on a couple of aspects which are mainly related to data essentially lack of reliable data that can form first the definition the exact definition of the surplus in a third in a third country and then the sort of the ex post assessment of you know the danger catch management and I was interested to know if there was you know like to what extent the Commission has kind of taken up on some of these recommendation and how it has decided to act upon that and the other aspect is more related to the to the accession to the 2030 agenda for sustainable development or to m2 policy coherence between on the one hand of course a sample Development Goal 14 on the other hand dangerous of promoting development as as well and I was kind of curious even there you know to what extent the narrative and and the you know the the aspiration of the thousand 30 agenda has started to kind of creep in the the field of sustainable partnership symbol fisheries participant Riemann's yeah thank you very much for your questions they both are very distinct and I will try to - I say to get most of them I nobody was the report published there by the court of Auditors in 2015 and I think that several recommendations of that report have been taken to a comment by the European Union in the last three years we have to look at the report where the okie Union analyzes each sustainable fisheries partnership agreement there is a example and unless post evaluation of each agreement and I think information provided by those reports I koala element and they try to take into account to the commendation of the court of editors published in 2050 regarding the surplus this is a very sensitive issue because the surface has to be decided or the limit of the fabulous is decided by the circuitry and the third country is a sovereign country so the European Union is able to to use some tools in order to pressure the third country but finally we are talking about a third country which is a sovereign the state is a sovereign subject under international law so it is not possible for the European Union to make everything would like her to do the spell because it is not entitled to do so in addition there are problems in terms of rule of law we are talking about states that are more delicate insistent others are stronger it is on the case it depends a lot on the case and of course the collation to the sustainable fisheries in relation to the agenda for sustainable development well the European Union is working with the United Nations in this field and with FAO as well there is a common agenda the Fair Oak has established its own priorities in relation to to fisheries and gold number 14 of the sustainable goals the sustainable development goals so the European Union try to tries to use this agreement in order to to develop a security policy in those countries as well many times population of those countries don't eat lot off for huge candidate of fish and fish products are very positive for from in terms of authority so the European Union has as a tools when I mentioned only very briefly in one phrase that's a sustainable fisheries partnership agreements are used by the European Union in its policy to fight against I you fishing because I reported another regulated fishing and I'll fishing is one of the issues that are quite relevant for gold number 14 so everything is late they have very complex issues and we have to take into account the limits of the European Union law of course but all of the international law as well is difficult to find the imbalance I think this agreements are quite a good tool for many reasons for the sustainability of our fisheries house just the PCs you're not here because I'm not sure about this point but this agreement the sustainable fisheries partnership idea I concluded already by the EU and not by the English literature would use uses signed by the European on behalf of its EU Member State I don't agree is this with this phrase because these treaties are information assigned by the European Union under the Vienna Convention of the time between an international organization and a state so the international legal responsibility belongs to the European Union it is an international treaty signed by the European Union because in this field EU member states do not have competence they transfer the competence to the European Union to sign such agreements so ing to article 3 and article 4 of the treaty on the European Union we can see that the European Union is entitled to sign international treaty relation to the conservation of marine biological resources so so the competence is for the European Union not for the Member States of course the Member States have the possibility to interfere into the negotiations because the negotiations the climate designed by the council but it is negotiated by the European Commission and the interest of the you member state may be represented in many ways during the negotiation process but finally is affinity signed by the European Union and it is a very interesting in my view is very interesting at the opinion provided by the International Tribunal for the law of the sea in 2015 elation to for questions from us original officially commissioned original fishermen's month organization and the tribunal from a hundred recognized the share competent the share of international responsibility for the European Union and the flag state in relation to activities than by the flag state as you know flag state the jurisdiction of the flexpays and supplied in relation to fishing activity and in relation to sustainable fisheries partnership agreements the trainer said that responsibility belongs to the European Union because it is an international treaty signed by by a legal subject and so on so the competence belongs to the EU yeah okay super maybe it just one last word just to thank our speaker professor Pawan if you want to to also add something on this front otherwise we can wrap it up for all our appearances just just one word because we are really otherwise we are abused in a Gabriella's time just to say that we are very thankful again to Gabriella we all learned is that the sustainable fisheries partnership agreements are a fundamental tool for the implementation of STG 14 on the part of the EU and they they are really a strategic tool in that respect so we are very thankful for for teaching us many many aspects into this important issue which of course is just a fragment of the overall axel of EU with respect to the conservation of the oceans I was thinking about the recent measure taken by the youth to ban single-use plastics so the fight against the pollution of the seas is also another another another area where the U is very much active but we certainly understood that least who is central today you effort towards implementing SDG 14 so thanks again for being with us thank you very much it was a pleasure and thank you very much I'm very thankful to both of you thank you very much that's it mean it perfect thank you professor anta thanks again on on on my behalf as well and thanks to everyone who participated we will be in touch on our channels very soon with information about the next few sessions of their you law and cinebulle government webinar series have a nice day everyone