Fisheries Partnership Agreement Between Mauritania And EU

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has a privileged connection with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in terms of fisheries. Several successive fishing agreements since 1987 have authorized the EU fishing vessels to access Mauritania fishing zones. The current Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) between the EU and Mauritania has been in force since 16th December 2006. The third protocol, running for two years, has been in application since 2012, in order to authorize the Commission to negotiate another protocol in the name of EU, before the current one expires. This research examines the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between Mauritania and EU, coastal states were able to expand their jurisdiction over maritime resources by establishing Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). Ever since, the EU maintains access to West African fishing grounds by negotiating agreements with the local governments. Fisheries resources of the Mauritania EEZ are mainly exploited for the benefit of the EU, Russia, China, Japan and others. EU investments in the Mauritania fishery sector secure in the first instance the supply of raw fishery products to the EU. The characteristics of the EEZ identified the resources as highly complex Common Pool Resource (CPR). An inherent feature of these CPR is that their users are rarely capable of overcoming the dilemma of overexploitation by themselves. The study concludes with some preliminary recommendations that could lead to an improvement of the situation.