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Preparation of the Terms of Reference for the IPA 2008 project on the establishing and strengthening of MCS system in fisheries - Albania

Albania

European Commission

Government of Albania, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Water Administration

IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) fishing in Albanian territorial waters has been and still persist a problem. This consist not only in irregularities attained by Albanian fishing vessels (often they don’t respect fishing activity according license conditions), but what is distressed, from the foreign fishing vessels that conduct fishery piracy in Albanian waters. The fisheries inspectorate conditions don’t permits them to control fishing activities in all Albanian waters due to the fact that missing necessary equipments. The control in collaboration with Coast Guard permit to control the Albanian fishing vessels activities but this control is not regular and scarce in detecting of such cases. The Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) situation is considered to be quite crucial in the case of the monitoring and Surveillance (including both enforcement and voluntary compliance), while the controls as described in the legal framework were generally accepted as satisfactory. Furthermore, apart of institutional strengthening the controlling of fishery activities cannot be understood without the establishment of a functioning central national system of water area surveillance. This system will be established by the government. This system of control is based on Council\ Regulation (EEC Nr. 2847/93, dated on 13 October 1993), as amended, and it is an important element of fishing vessel control in the frame of Common Fisheries Policy. The necessary infrastructure for VMS (Vessel Monitoring System) will be joined to the central national system at the Coast Guard CMOC Common Marine Operational Centre created by a Decision of the Council of Ministers. The concurrent implementation of the MCS activities, the strengthening of the Fisheries Inspectorate and coordination of activities with other bodies such as Coastal Guard and Border Police will bring on an improvement in the enforcing and compliance of legislation in the fishery sector. Therefore, the European Commission is willing to assist the improving of the MCS system by financing through IPA 2008 programme for Albania the project “Establishing and Strengthening of Monitoring Control and Surveillance system in fisheries” The global objective of this mission is to Assist Albania improve its compliance with the EU directives in the fishery sector. The specific is to Prepare the Terms of reference for the project to be financed under IPA 2008.

Start date: 2008-10-01

End date: 2009-03-31