General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - GFCM

New steps towards the harmonization of fisheries legislation


07/02/2022

Over the past year, the GFCM-Lex project has taken great strides towards setting up a region-wide legal framework for the conservation of Mediterranean living marine resources and ecosystems. As fisheries laws vary greatly among the region’s 21 countries, this project is crucial for supporting the harmonization of legal frameworks in the Mediterranean.

On the occasion of the fourth MAVA steering committee stakeholders came together to review the evaluation of the project in Málaga. This meeting highlights the importance of a strengthened subregional approach to promote cooperation and facilitate dialogue with countries on major subregional issues.

Phase one of GFCM-Lex encouraged Mediterranean countries to align their legal frameworks with GFCM recommendations, consolidating methodology at a regional level. Throughout this phase, greater awareness and capacity building on national legislation was achieved. Following approval of the project at the forty-fourth session of the GFCM, GFCM-Lex is being expanded to other countries during phase two, with the objective to progressively cover all countries in the region.

To keep the momentum going, four national workshops will be organized in the upcoming months with the aim to:

  • Evaluate gaps in the implementation of GFCM recommendations within national legal frameworks;
  • Support the development of national legislation in line with GFCM recommendations;
  • Identify national stakeholders that can benefit from GFCM-Lex;
  • Determine a process to contribute and continually update the repository of national legislation; and
  • Raise awareness on GFCM-Lex as a tool to share legal information on fisheries management and aquaculture in a user-friendly fashion.

So far GFCM-Lex is already having a concrete effect on the development of national legislation in line with GFCM recommendations with countries now discussing the adoption and amendment of new fisheries laws with the support of the GFCM, thereby identifying areas still in need of harmonization and revision. At the upcoming national workshops, which will target countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco before long, progress at the national level on the development of fisheries law will be discussed thoroughly.

Training workshops are also expected to be organized by the end of the summer so as to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge through GFCM-Lex to a very broad audience. More information will be provided on the upcoming events shortly.

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More information on the GFCM-Lex project.