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ABSTRACT

The sixteenth session of the Compliance Committee (CoC) of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was held in person on 5 May 2023 in Rhodes, Greece. The session was attended by 74 participants who reviewed the implementation of all intersessional activities carried out in the framework of the Committee and agreed on its 2023–2024 programme of work. The session addressed, among others, the overall status of compliance within the GFCM, the need for corrective actions that would support the GFCM to address non-compliance, the potential advice on compliance to be presented to the Commission at its next annual session and tools in place to deter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, such as the list of vessels presumed to have carried out IUU fishing in the GFCM area of application. Finally, as the Chairperson of the Committee reported he would not pursue a second mandate, the Committee discussed a proposal for a new Bureau to be appointed by the Commission at its next annual session.