EPA and Fisheries - Focus on West Africa

Abstract: Fishing is important to the countries in West Africa since it provides food, work opportunities and foreign exchange for the countries. Fishing agreements have granted access to their fishing waters to the EU, which needs this access to meet the increasing demand of fish from its inhabitants. With the EU preferences towards the ACP-countries changing and the signing of economic partnership agreements (EPA:s) as a consequence of this, the relations between the EU and the countries in ECOWAS concerning fisheries will be affected. This paper studies the contents of these EPA:s and the interim EPA:s that have been signed concerning fisheries and evaluates what effects they can have on the countries in ECOWAS. The conclusion is that an EPA in itself can hardly promote sustainable development concerning fisheries, it also requires development of the fisheries sectors in each country, measures to avoid unemployment and regional fishing policies. It is also crucial with regional integration within ECOWAS and that the coastal states get better possibilities to control the waters outside their borders.