Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a serious threat to fisheries sustainability in EU fisheries, and worldwide.

The European Council recently adopted a regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing and the European Commission proposes a reform to the EU’s Control and Enforcement regime.

Inevitably, a number of measures to combat IUU fishing will have costs. It is important, therefore, to recognise the main costs that are caused by IUU activity today and which will affect the future of European fish stocks and fishing industries.

This report makes a preliminary investigation into the level of the economic, social and environmental costs of IUU fishing at the wide scale of EU fisheries and Member States.

Download the full report below. In addition, there is a related briefing The Costs of IUU Fishing to the EU as well as questions and answers regarding the report.