Annual report 2014.
Date: 2015-07-15
Institutions: European Fisheries Control Agency
Subjects: European Fisheries Control Agency, activity report, fishing controls

ANNUAL 
REPORT 
2014

EFCA Annual Report 2014

Legal basis:

Articles 14 and 23(2)(b) of Council Regulation (EC) No 768/20051 as amended by 
Regulation (EC) No 1224/20092, Article 47 of the Financial Regulation of EFCA3.

The  Annual  Report  2014  follows  the  Activity  Based  Management  System  under 
the  Multiannual  Work  Programme  2014-2018  and Annual  Work  Programme  2014 
adopted on 15 October 2013.

ISBN 978-92-9209-034-0
ISSN 2363-2151
doi:10.2835/645044

© European Union, 2015
Reproduction is authorized provided the source is acknowledged.

More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu). Cataloguing data can be 
found at the end of this publication.
© Cover page – “Fishing Gears” – Ricardo Leite
Last page – “It’s a nice day to go fishing (Fisherman at Arousa)” – Felipe Agudo

1 OJ of the European Union L 128 of 21.05.2005, p.1.
2 OJ of the European Union L 343 of  22.12.2009, p.1.
3 AB Decision No 13-W-09 of 31 December 2013.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreword ................................................................................................................8

Introduction statement .........................................................................................9

Executive Summary ............................................................................................ 11

Part I. Achievements of the year ........................................................................13

1.1. Background ..........................................................................................13

1.2.  Main initiatives within the multiannual  

framework 2014-2018 .......................................................................... 14

1.3. Operational Activities ..........................................................................20

1.3.1.  Operational Coordination .........................................................20

1.3.1.1.  North Sea and Baltic Sea ............................................. 21

1.3.1.2.  North Atlantic and Western Waters ............................26

1.3.1.3.  Mediterranean and Black Sea .....................................32

1.3.2. Programmes, plans and assessment ......................................38

1.3.3. Data monitoring and networks .................................................43

1.3.4. Training .......................................................................................49

1.3.5.  Maritime Surveillance, Pooled Capacities and IUU ................53

Part II. Governance and horizontal support .....................................................60

2.1. Governance and representation .........................................................60

2.1.1. Administrative Board ................................................................60

2.1.2. Advisory Board ..........................................................................63

2.1.3. Representation and Networks ..................................................64

2.1.4. Communication .........................................................................66

2.2. Horizontal support ...............................................................................69

2.2.1. Major events ...............................................................................69

2.2.2. Budgetary and financial management .....................................69

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.2.3. Human Resources (HR) management .....................................73

2.2.4.  Budget implementation tasks entrusted to other 

services and entities .................................................................76

2.2.5. Procurement ..............................................................................76

2.2.6. IT .................................................................................................77

2.2.7. Facilities .....................................................................................78

2.2.8. Data protection and access to documents .............................78

Part III. Building Blocks of Assurance .............................................................. 80

3.1. Assessment by management ............................................................. 80

3.2. Compliance and Effectiveness of Internal Control System .............81

3.3. Legality and Regularity of transactions ............................................84

3.3.1. Ex-ante and ex-post controls ...................................................84

3.3.2. Exception Reporting .................................................................85

3.4. Risk Management ................................................................................85

3.5. Assessment of audit results during the reporting year ...................86

3.5.1. Internal Audit Service (IAS) ......................................................86

3.5.2. Internal Audit Capability (IAC) ..................................................86

3.5.3. European Court of Auditors (ECA) ..........................................86

3.5.4. External Evaluations .................................................................87

3.6. Follow up of audit plans, audits and recommendations ..................91

3.7. Follow up of observations from the Discharge authority ................91

Part IV. Management assurance ........................................................................92

4.1. Review of the elements supporting assurance ................................92

4.2. Reservations and overall conclusion on assurance ........................92

4.2.1. Statement of the Internal Control Coordinator .......................93

4.2.2. Declaration of Assurance .........................................................94

6

Foreword

Reinhard Priebe, Chair of the Administrative Board

This Annual Report illustrates the high level of performance 
of 
the  European  Fisheries  Control  Agency  (EFCA) 
when  carrying  out  its  tasks  during  2014.  EFCA  made 
an  important  contribution  to  a  smooth  implementation 
of  the  new  elements  of  the  reformed  Common  Fisheries 
Policy. It worked particularly hard with the Member States 
to  prepare  the  monitoring  of  the  landing  obligation  by 
brokering  cooperation,  promoting  interoperability  and 
building common capacities. 

these  achievements, 

Beyond 
the  Annual  Report 
also  demonstrates  the  high  degree  of  efficiency  and 
effectiveness  that  Member  States  and  the  European 
Commission  all  can  reach  together  and  with  the  active 
support  of  ECFA,  in  a  sensible  and  joint  implementation 
of  the  control  regime  applying  to  the  Common  Fisheries 
Policy. 

As Chair of the Administrative Board, in which all Member 
States  and  the  Commission  are  represented,  I  am 
confident that we are all together on a good way to reach a 
level playing field and to promote a culture of compliance 
with  the  rules  of  the  Common  Fisheries  Policy.    Bearing 
in mind that these complex rules are in the first place to 
be implemented by national administrations, with all their 
different traditions and cultures, ECFA’s daily work is key 
in  supporting  those  administrations  to  achieve  the  high 
level  of  compliance,  which  is  indispensable  for  reaching 
the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy.

88

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
 
Introduction statement

Pascal Savouret, Executive Director of EFCA

The EFCA Annual Report for 2014 is written in accordance 

with  the  newly  established  annual  reporting  framework 

worked out by the inter agencies network and approved 

by  the  European  Commission.  This  Annual  Report  has 

the  ambition  to  provide  the  EFCA Administrative  Board, 

the  European  Parliament,  the  European  Council,  the 

European Commission including the Internal Audit Service, 

the European Court of Auditors and the European Citizens 

with  a  comprehensive  and  transparent  insight  of  the 

achievements of the Agency in accordance with its Annual 

work programme of 2014. The resources granted by the 

European  Union  budget  have  been  fully  used  reaching 

99% of commitment execution and 88% in payment. I can 

give  the  reasonable  assurance  that  the  resources  were 

assigned and used in total compliance with the principles 

derived from the EU Financial Regulation. You will read the 

total dedication of EFCA staff to assist the Member States 

and the European Commission in the preparation of the 

monitoring  of  the  landing  obligation,  including  the  rolling 

out of new Data Network systems as required by the EU 

Control  Regulation, the making of additional modules of 

the Core Curricula for the training of fisheries inspectors, 

and  the  synergies  developed  within  the  Member  States 

regional fora for joint efforts for the monitoring of the then 

future landing obligation. 

In  addition,  as  the  landing  obligation  includes  some 
species not covered by a specific control and inspection 
programme,  the  EFCA  Administrative  Board  approved 
an  expanded  cooperation  approach  with  the  Member 
States,  coined  as  PACT  for  Partnership,  Accountability 
(compliance), Cooperation and Transparency.

The coordination of the ongoing Joint Deployment Plans 
reached  a  significant  intensity  with  an  increase  of  the 
inspections in the different areas compared to the previous 
year, which have led to around 12,700 inspections. Five 

Joint Deployment Plans have been implemented and the 
development of a year-round activity continued, covering 
a  wider  range  of  species  with  permanent  exchange  of 
information and intelligence.

The Agency also supported the European Commission in 
providing support in activities related to Regional Fisheries 
Management  Organisations  in  the  fight  against  Illegal, 
Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities and in 
capacity building missions in third countries, including in the 
framework of sustainable fisheries partnership agreements.

9

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
 
During 2014, EFCA held 47 training activities and trained 
according  to  its  key  performance  indicators  more  than 
10% of the Union inspectors.
This very successful year was sadly marked by the death 
of  the  Chair  of  EFCA  Administrative  Board,  Mr  Jörgen 
Holmquist, who passed away in March. 

EFCA Administrative Board elected a new Chair during its 
October  2014  meeting,  Mr  Reinhard  Priebe,  with  whom 

I  will  continue  working  hand  in  hand  to  achieve  even 
improved  cooperation  and  assistance  to  our  partners  in 
the Member States and the European Commission. 

The  objectives  of  the  Agency  remain  well-founded: 
achieving  a  culture  of  compliance,  the  level  playing  field 
and  cost  effectiveness  in  the  control  of  the  Common 
Fisheries Policy.

10

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyExecutive Summary

the  context  of 

increasing  challenges 
facing 
Within 
EFCA has carried out a broad  exercise  to  strengthen its 
business  model  through  rationalisation,  simplification 
and  streamlining  the  organisation,  in  order  to  face  the 
implementation  of  new  tasks  in  the  Common  Fisheries 
Policy  with  belt-tightening  due  to  a  budget  frozen  at 
2013 levels and a decrease of the staff. This new model 
has  set  the  driving  framework  for  the  coming  years  and 
endeavours to respond to the priorities set up in EFCA’s 

multiannual and annual work programmes as adopted by 
the Administrative Board.

During  2014  significant  achievements  have  been  made, 
with  EFCA  at  the  vanguard  of  cooperation,  promoting 
effective and uniform application of the Common Fisheries 
Policy  rules  and  guaranteeing  a  level  playing  field  with 
cost efficiency: 

EFCA activities – overall achievements 20144

120 %

100 %

80 %

60 %

40 %

20 %

0 %

100 %

92.40 %

1.64 %

5.06 %

0.90 %

Available 

Achieved

Enterprise
Architecture

Postponed

Cancelled

• 

The  landing  obligation  has  been  to  the  forefront 
of  the  operational  priorities;  to  pave  the  way  for  its 
implementation  from  January  2015  onwards,  EFCA 
has moved ahead with different initiatives, inter alia: 
facilitating  the  discussion  for a  risk  strategy matrix, 
leading  regional 
strengthening  cooperation  with 
bodies,  namely  the  Baltic  Sea  Fisheries  Forum 
(BALTFISH) and the Scheveningen group, assisting 

in the preparation of guidelines for Union inspectors 
in  the  Baltic  Sea,  a  dedicated  project  in  the  Joint 
Deployment Plans (JDPs) and an awareness raising 
campaign. 
It  is  worth  noting  the  preparatory  work  done  during 
2014 for future joint (Member States/EFCA) methods 
and procedures for risk analysis in the context of the 
landing obligation.

4 Available = 2014 budget as voted 
  Achieved = 2014 budget consumed and carried-forward for 2014 activities 
  Enterprise Architecture = the portion scheduled for 2015
  Postponed = 2014 budget carried-forward for 2015 activities  
  Cancelled = 2014 budget cancelled and not carried-forward.

11

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
 
•  Since 2014 all the JDPs are multispecies, multiannual 
and continuous during the year, with five JDPs and a 
Joint Control Work Programme. There was a yearly 
increase  of  the  inspections  coordinated  by  EFCA  in 
the  JDPs  up  to  around  12,700,  with  more  than  700 
suspected  infringements  detected.  The  exchanges 
of Member States inspectors have continued during 
2014 and a new Special Mixed Team has been set up 
in the Mediterranean JDP, to follow Bluefin tuna farms 
at the time of inspection of caging activities. 

Efficiency and effectiveness in the JDPs performance 
has  been  guided  by  risk  analysis  and  management. 
With  the  objective  to  enhance  the  use  of  risk  based 
approach in the implementation of the JDPs, a project 
on the establishment of common working procedures 
for  the  implementation  of  regional  risk  management 
has  been  launched.  The  project  aims  to  develop  a 
standard  process  and  associated  guidelines  for  the 
assessment and management of a priority threat and 
to review the data exchange protocol used by Member 
States in sharing their lists of targets for inspection.

•  Special  effort  has  been  undertaken  to  train  Union 
inspectors, Member States officials and third countries 
officials.  This  has  led  to  a  considerable  rise  in  the 
number  of  trained  officials  (842),  44%  more  than  in 
2013  (585),  and  the  number  of  courses  have  risen 
from 27 in 2013 to 47 in 2014, an increase of 74%.
Furthermore,  within  the  framework  of  the  new 
Common  Fisheries  Policy, 
to  ensure 
compliance  at  international  level,  EFCA,  with  the 
support  of  the  Member  States,  provided  technical 
assistance to officials from Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory 
Coast, Curacao and South Korea.

in  order 

Inspection” 
The  Core  Curricula  course  on  “Port 
(handbook  and  manual  for  trainers)  was  completed 
and was made available on the EU bookshop website. 
The following CC courses have been approved by the 
Steering Group on Training and Exchange of Experience: 
“Introduction to fisheries inspection”, “Identify the entity 
to inspect”, “Surveillance and Transhipment”.

•  New technology is paramount to improving maritime 
surveillance;  with  that  aim  EFCA  has  engaged  in 
different  ongoing  projects,  testing  new  technologies 
and taking active part in the creation of a decentralised 
maritime information exchange system (CISE).

•  EFCA  operates  new  collaborative  tools  such  as 
Fishnet, the Electronic Reporting System (ERS), the 
Electronic  Inspection  Report  system  (EIR),  and  the 
new  updated  Marsurv  service,  which  are  available 
to  Member  States.  The  JDP  decisions  taken  in 
December 2014 already embedded the use of Data 
Management systems. 

• 

• 

• 

In  the  fight  against  IUU,  the  Agency  supported 
the  European  Commission  in  the  preparation  and 
conduction  of  evaluations/audits  in  eight  countries: 
Ecuador, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, Cape Verde, 
South Korea, Philippines and Thailand.
A risk methodology project to apply a basic uniform 
view of the challenges, and to focus the resources on 
the  problem  consignments  in  the  catch  certification 
schema 
IUU 
for  fisheries  products  under 
Regulation, has been initiated. 

the 

implemented 

In  2014  EFCA 
its  new  Financial 
Regulation and developed the implementing rules to 
underpin the new Staff regulations.

In  line  with  the  Roadmap  on  the  follow-up  to  the 
Common  Approach  on  EU  decentralised  agencies, 
EFCA  developed  its  Conflict  of  Interests  policy,  and 
Anti-fraud  strategy  and  undertook  the  preparatory 
work  with  the  European  Commission  for  a  Working 
arrangement  between  DG  MARE  and  EFCA  for  the 
Agency`s international activities.

•  EFCA has implemented 99.1% (98.6% in 2013) of the 
voted commitment appropriations, and 88.4% (83.9% 
in 2013) of the payment appropriations. The level of 
carry  forward  2014-2015  has  been  11%  of  the  total 
budget,  in  comparison  to  the  15%  of  the  previous 
year.

12

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
 
 
 
Part I – Achievements of the year

1.1. Background

The Agency in brief

To improve governance and to contribute to a level playing 
field in European fisheries, EFCA has been established as 
an independent EU body to assist the Member States (MS) 
and  the  European  Commission  in  the  implementation  of 
the provisions of the Common Fisheries Policy in the area 
of control, inspection and surveillance5. 

In accordance with its founding regulation6, the Agency’s 
mission is “to promote the highest common standards for 
control,  inspection  and  surveillance  under  the  Common 
Fisheries Policy”.

EFCA  functions  at  the  highest  level  of  excellence  and 
transparency  with  a  view  to  developing  the  necessary 
confidence  and  cooperation  of  all  parties  involved  and, 
in  so  doing,  to  ensure  effectiveness  and  efficiency  of  its 
operations.

control  and  inspection  schemes  adopted  by  Regional 
Fisheries  Management  Organisations  (RFMOs),  and 
operational  plans  upon  request  of  two  or  more  Member 
States.

 - Capacity Building8

Assistance  to  the  Member  States  and  the  European 
Commission  in  the  area  of  control,  inspection  and 
surveillance,  with  specific  regard  to  activities  enhancing 
the potential of national enforcement services to apply the 
rules of the CFP in a uniform and effective manner. These 
activities include reporting and exchange of data on fishing, 
control and inspection activities, arranging the accessibility 
of those data to the Coordination Centre in Charge (CCIC) 
and Associated Coordination Centres (ACCs), developing 
and  coordinating  training  programmes,  fighting  against 
IUU and the possible acquisition of equipment necessary 
for  the  implementation  of  JDPs  or  on  the  request  of 
Member States. 

Activity Based Management System 

•  Functional activity
 - Governance and Representation9

In accordance with the Activity Based Management System 
(ABMS) approach approved by the Administrative Board on 
19 October 2010, EFCA accomplishes its mission through 
its  two  operational  activities  and  one  functional  activity 
integral to its operation as an independent EU body:

•  Operational activities
 - Operational Coordination7

Organisation  of  the  operational  coordination  of  control 
activities  by  Member  States  for  the  implementation  of 
specific control and inspection programmes, international 

For  the  purpose  of  the  functioning  of  EFCA  as  an 
independent EU body, all activities deployed in support of 
the Administrative Board, the Advisory Board, inter-agency 
cooperation,  representation  and  communication  are 
considered  as  EU  governance  activities.  The  resources 
allocated  to  EFCA’s  functional  activity  are  linked  to  the 
general objectives and are carried out in close connection 
with its operational activities.

EFCA  estimates  its  horizontal  support  costs  separately, 
which  are  then  distributed  within  each  of  the  3  activities 

5 Special Report nº 7/2007 on the control, inspection and sanction systems relating to the rules on the conservation of Community fisheries resources together with 
the Commission’s replies.
6 Regulation (EC) No 768/2005 of 26 April 2005 establishing a Community Fisheries Control Agency.
7 Activity code: 1 (ABMS).
8 Activity code: 2 (ABMS).
9 Activity code: 3 (ABMS).

13

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencyexplained above. The figures presented for Activity Based 
Budgeting  (ABB)/Activity  Based  Costing  (ABC)  for  each 
activity include the horizontal support expenditure. All the 
relevant  information  can  be  found  under  section  2.2.2 
Budgetary  and  financial  management  and  under  each 
Annual work programme (AWP) activity.

1.2.  Main initiatives within the multiannual 

framework 2014-2018 

EFCA’s  multiannual  framework  is  marked,  inter  alia,  by 
the  implementation  of  the  features  of  the  new  Common 
Fisheries Policy that entered into force on 1 January 2014, 
the recommendations issued by the Administrative Board 
following the 5 year external independent evaluation of the 
European  Fisheries  Control  Agency  on  15  March  2012, 
the  revised  Framework  Financial  Regulation  (FFR)  and 
the Road map on the follow-up to the common approach 
on EU decentralised agencies.

  Evolution of Joint Deployment Plans

In  accordance  with  the  Multiannual  work  programme 
(MWP) and EFCA 5 year independent external evaluation 
and  issuing  of Administrative  Board  recommendations10, 
EFCA  JDPs  continued  to  develop  towards  a  year-round 
activity, covering a wider range of species with permanent 
exchange of information and intelligence.

In  2014,  the  Mediterranean  JDP  scope  was  enlarged  to 
cover  swordfish  and  small  pelagic  in  the Adriatic  Sea.  It 
means that currently all JDPs are multispecies, multiannual 
(same  validity  as  the  Specific  Control  and  Inspection 
Programme (SCIP)) and continuous all year round.

The  results  of  the  cooperation  between  Member  States 
regarding  the  implementation  of  the  JDPs  have  shown 
an increase up to around 12,700 inspections. This can be 
explained by the fact that JDPs are now permanent and 
have a longer scope than in 2013, especially in the North 
Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Infringements at sea 

Infringements ashore

Inspections at sea

Inspections ashore

Total inspections

EVOLUTION OF JDPS FROM 2009

500

434

450

353

305

271

268

266

210

163

141

165

136

151

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

d
e
t
c
e
p
s
u
S

s
t
n
e
m
e
g
n
i
r
f
n

I

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

s
n
o
i
t
c
e
p
s
n

I

14000

12000

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

0

10 http://www.efca.europa.eu/pages/home/docs_basicdocs.htm

14

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyThe ratio of suspected infringements by inspection in the 
different areas is provided below. The evolution this year 
shows an increase in the ratio of suspected infringements 
discovered in the Mediterranean Sea JDP, mostly due to 

the increase of scope of the JDP from only bluefin tuna to 
other species in the Mediterranean Sea. In other JDPs no 
noticeable changes were observed.

RATIO FOR SUSPECTED INFRINGEMENT BY INSPECTION IN JDPS FROM 2009

n
o
i
t
c
e
p
s
n

I
/

s
t
n
e
m
e
g
n
i
r
f
n

I

32.0 %
3.0 %
28.0 %
26.0 %
24.0 %
22.0 %
2.0 %
18.0 %
16.0 %
14.0 %
12.0 %
1.0 %
8.0 %
6.0 %
4.0 %
2.0 %
0.0 %

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

NAFO

NEAFC

NS+WW WW - PELAGIC

BS

BFT/MED

JDP

  Regional risk management project 

respectively  to  the  medium  and  short-term  level  of  JDP 
coordination were discussed, namely:

EFCA  is  highly  committed  in  promoting  a  regional  risk-
based  approach  to  the  control  operations  in  close 
partnership  with  Member  States.  During  2014,  a 
dedicated  multiannual  project  to  review  the  risk  analysis 
and  management  systems  in  place  within  the  European 
Union Waters JDP areas was launched (Kick-off meeting 
19-20  February  2014  in  Copenhagen,  DK).  The  project 
aims  at  establishing  common  working  procedures  for 
the implementation of regional risk management through 
the  common  discussion,  sharing  and  exchanging  of  the 
results of each Member State’s risk analyses systems.

A specific project-related technical expert’s workshop was 
organised  in  Gothenburg,  SE,  on  the  17-18  June  2014. 
During  this  workshop  standard  procedures  contributing 

 -

 -

 Methodology  for  the  risk-based  management  of 
priority fishery threats; 
 Pooling and sharing of target for controls identified 
by Member States.

The discards threat has been introduced as a case study 
to  test  the  standard  procedures  in  elaboration.  This  has 
permitted that as from an early stage Member States and 
EFCA  jointly  develop  methods  and  procedures  for  risk 
analysis in the context of the landing obligation. Synergies 
with  the  on-going  JDPs  projects  on  record/estimation 
of  discards  were  explored,  namely  in  the  development 
of  methods  able  to  determine  likelihood  of  occurrence 
(e.g.  “last haul” analysis).

1515

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyIn  the  last  meeting  in  Porto  in  December  2014  the 
developments  achieved  during  the  above  mentioned 
technical  meetings  were  presented  and  discussed  with 
the members of the EU waters Regional Steering Groups 
(plenary meeting). The project will continue during 2015. 

  Cost effectiveness

considering  different  components:  costs  of  labour  of 
inspectors  and  crew,  fuel  consumption,  maintenance, 
depreciation  and  insurance.  The  model  uses  different 
sources for the estimation of standard costs like salaries 
(Eurostat) or fuel price. When not available for the year of 
the estimation, some average annual increment is used. 
Unit costs are then multiplied by the control effort reported 
by Member States.

EFCA,  through  the  Focus  Group  on  cost-effectiveness 
created by the Administrative Board, developed in 2013 a 
methodology for the assessment of JDP costs. A standard 
model  to  estimate  the  unit  cost  of  patrol  means  was 
developed. 

The  methodology  was  used  to  produce  an  estimation  of 
costs  of  2013  JDPs.  A  report  has  been  completed  and 
submitted to the Administrative Board, after being sent to 
the different regional steering groups for comments. 

The  use  of  each  patrol  asset  (patrol  vessel,  aircraft 
or  national  land  team)  per  time  unit  can  be  estimated 

The total estimated cost of all JDP operations during 2013 
were as follows (M€):

Coordination

Land inspection

Sea inspection

Sea inspection

4,6

0,3

34,9

3,6

Total

43,4

It is envisaged to perform the JDP costs estimation every 
year, in consultation with Member States. Some additional 
ad  hoc  survey  will  be  necessary  to  update  unit  costs. 
Results could be used as input to cost efficiency analysis. 
The model could also be used in the future in the planning 
of JDPs to compare deployment options.

Waters, Bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean Sea and 
demersal fisheries in the southern North Sea) as means 
of developing the methodology. The pilot project on these 
three  fisheries  showed  a  positive  trend  in  compliance  in 
the three cases during the last years.

framework  methodology 

The 
the  evaluation  of 
compliance in fisheries was delivered and endorsed by the 
Administrative Board. 

for 

Different  methods 
methodology:

compose  EFCA’s 

compliance 

  Compliance evaluation 

The  Administrative  Board  Focus  Group  on  compliance 
evaluation  decided  to  initiate  a  pilot  project  to  develop 
a  methodology  for  compliance  evaluation.  It  focused  on 
certain  selected  fisheries  (pelagic  fisheries  in  Western 

16

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyCompliance Evaluation Method

Temporal trends of infringements 

Estimates of non-allocated catches 

Methods of alternative catch estimates, compared with official landings data 

EFCA Regional Risk analysis results 

Interviews of control experts 

Questionnaires on compliance 

Market analyses 

The end product of the compliance evaluation exercise is 
presented as an ‘index’ based on the different compliance 
evaluation methods. It will require a partnership between 
EFCA and the Member States concerned.

 

 New Common Fisheries Policy: Implementation of 
the landing obligation

a) Landing obligation project implementation in JDPs

EFCA  draft  recommendations  for  the  monitoring  of 
the  landing  obligation  were  presented  and  discussed 
with  stakeholders  at  the  EFCA  Seminar  in  Dubrovnik 
in January 2014. The Administrative Board, considering 
the  EFCA  recommendations,  endorsed  the  launching 
of a project to implement the landing obligation in the 
framework  of  the  JDPs.  The  project  focused  first  on 
compliance with the requirements for accurate recording 
of  discards  in  the  Baltic  Sea,  Western  Waters  (Small 
Pelagic Species) and Mediterranean Sea (Adriatic Sea) 
JDP areas, as the fisheries covered are subject to the 
landing obligation from 1 January 2015. 

A dedicated project was, as agreed, presented to each 
of the Regional Steering Groups concerned in May 2014 
and  incorporated  to  the  respective  JDPs.  The  project 
has been encompassed within the JDP normal control 
and  inspection  effort  and  target  sea  inspections  by 
introducing this specific objective in some campaigns. 
Data collection (“last haul” data) has been undertaken, 
with participation of MS inspectors and assistance from 
EFCA staff in the field.

The project progress report has been presented to the 
Regional  Steering  Groups.  Risk  based  matrixes  by 
fisheries  have  been  prepared,  composed  of  discard 
data  (historical  data  from  STECF/ICES),  Member 
States official data, and “last haul” observations). This 
data  will  be  used  for  the  preparation  of  regional  risk 
analysis  in  the  different  areas  and  identify  the  major 
risks  of  non-compliance  with  the  landing  obligation. 
This risk analysis has already been done for the Baltic 
Sea in cooperation with the BALTFISH.

As part of the project, a raising awareness campaign on 
the obligation to record discards was initiated in March 
2014.  A  communication  has  been  published  on  the 
EFCA website. Dissemination of the campaign in some 
regional Advisory Councils (AC) has been taken place 
throughout 2014. 

b)  Assistance to regional bodies: cooperation with the 

Scheveningen Group and BALTFISH 

the 

from  EFCA  with 

the 
Cooperation  was  engaged 
specialised  control  group  of 
two  constituted 
regional bodies created by Member States and active 
in  the  framework  of  the  regionalisation  of  the  recently 
adopted  CFP11  new  basic  regulation:  Scheveningen 
and  BALTFISH. This  cooperation  has  been  especially 
important  on 
landing 
obligation:

implementation  of 

the 

the 

• 

 Regarding Scheveningen, cooperation to prepare a first 
risk analysis with regard to the small pelagic fisheries 

11 Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013; OJ of the European Union L 295 of 6.11.2013, p. 11.

17

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencyin  the  North  Sea  and  Western  Waters  was  provided. 
Further cooperation was initiated in order to deliver a 
first risk analysis for the demersal fisheries in the area.

•  Regarding BALTFISH:

○   Two  meetings  were  organised  with  the  delivery 
of an updated risk analysis in the Baltic Sea area 
in  November  2014.  EFCA  also  participated  to 
different forums together with national authorities 
and stakeholders  to prepare  the  implementation 
of the landing obligation. A permanent project to 
cooperate during 2015 with BALTFISH has been 
agreed.

○   Upon the request of BALTFISH, EFCA assists the 
Member  States  in  the  preparation  of  guidelines 
for inspectors in the context of the introduction of 
the landing obligation as from January 2015.

	 Gothenburg seminar and the new PACT approach 

EFCA organised a Focus Group seminar in Gothenburg on 
25 June 2014 as a follow up of the work undertaken since 
the  Dubrovnik  seminar  in  January  2014.  The  necessary 
common approach and the key features of the Regulation 
to  adapt  the  EU  acquis  to  the  entry  into  force  of  the 
landing  obligation  (the  so  called  “Omnibus  Regulation”), 
the possible use of the European Maritime and Fisheries 
Fund (EMFF) for fisheries control and the implementation 
of the landing obligation were discussed.

The  reformed  CFP  introduces  a  landing  obligation  for 
some species not currently covered by SCIPs and hence 
JDPs.  In order that Member States are able to benefit to 
the  fullest  extent  from  EFCA  services  with  regard  to  the 
application  of  the  new  CFP,  it  was  considered  that  best 
service  delivery  may  be  achievable  via  an  integrated 
approach  utilising  both  established  JDP  coverage  and 
‘assistance’  as  provided  for  in  article  7  of  the  EFCA 
founding regulation12. The concept of an expanded service 
delivery model was presented to participants at the EFCA 
seminar in Gothenburg and received a positive response 
from both Member States and the European Commission. 

The  services  EFCA  provides  to  Member  States  are 
developed  and  delivered  under  the  guiding  principles 
and 
of  Partnership,  Accountability,  Cooperation 
Transparency. These  principles  are  encompassed  in  the 
useful  conceptual  acronym  ‘PACT’. The  PACT  approach 
is  applicable  to  the  provision  of  both  JDP  and  non-JDP 
services to Member States.

This concept has been incorporated to the MWP 2015-2019 
and will serve as a basis to provide assistance to Member 
States and the European Commission on a structured way.

	 Data Monitoring and Networks

During  the  course  of  2014,  EFCA  continued  the  work 
with  the  development  and  enhancement  of  IT  projects 
in  order  to  provide  the  best  collaborative  tools  to  the 
Member States and fostering interoperability and common 
information  availability.  This  was  shown  by  the  release 
and  roll  out  of  Fishnet  and  Electronic  Reporting  System 
(ERS), in line with the positive multiannual priorities for the 
period.  Fishnet  was  used  during  coordination  activities, 
assisting  all  involved  parties  to  exchange  documents, 
conduct meetings and plan activities in a transparent and 
user friendly way. 

Furthermore,  the  EFCA  ERS  was  made  available  to  all 
Member  States  and  the  decisions  were  made  to  start 
using  the  exchange  of  fishing  trip  data  from  ERS  from 
the  beginning  of  2015,  starting  with  the  JDP  of  Western 
Waters.  As  an  integral  part  of  the  EFCA  Fisheries 
Information  System  (FIS),  the  VMS  continued  being  of 
great  value,  complemented  by  the  huge  added  value 
that  Marsurv  brings  for  coordination  purposes.  With  its 
AIS and Sat-AIS as well as LRIT data, Marsurv provides 
a very detailed picture of the vessel activities, on various 
occasions  identifying  fishing  activities  when  traditional 
Vessel Monitoring Systems could not. 

The  EFCA  Electronic  Inspection  Report  (EIR)  system 
was  created  and  made  available  to  the  Member  States 
during the latter part of 2014. An agreement was entered 

12 Regulation (EC) No 768/2005.

18

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencybetween  Member  States,  EFCA  and  the  Commission  in 
the September Fisheries Management Meeting to use the 
EFCA  XML  Schema  Definition  (XSD)  specification  as  a 
basis for exchanging electronic inspection reports until the 
XSD  was  formally  adopted  in  the  next  update  of  the  EU 
Control  Regulation  Implementing  Rules13.  Subsequently, 
the  European  Commission  decided  to  use  the  Fisheries 
Language  for  Universal  Exchange  (FLUX)  transportation 
layer for all exchanges of data. That means that the EFCA 
EIR  system  allows  for  manual  entry,  upload  of  XML-files, 
and the work with adapting it to accept data over the FLUX 
transportation layer was started. The system is offered to all 
Member States as Software as a Service thereby assisting 
Member States to comply with the EU Control Regulation 
and to increase transparency. 

The  Core  Curricula  Development  Platform  (CCDP)  was 
enhanced to improve performance and used as a facilitator 
for  the  exchange  of  views  regarding  the  creation  and 
approving of the Core Curricula throughout the year.

During the year, EFCA participated in a number of projects to 
test new technologies or in any other way improve maritime 
surveillance such as New Service Capabilities for Integrated 
and Advanced Maritime Surveillance (NEREIDS) and SAR 
AIS  Observation  of  the  Seas  (SARAOS),  Demonstration 
of  Satellites  enabling  the  Insertion  of  RPAS  in  Europe 

(DeSIRE)  and  Validation  of  Space-Based  EO  Video  Data 
for  European  Security  Applications  (VEOS).  Furthermore 
EFCA  is  a  full  member  of  the  Technical  Advisory  Group 
(TAG)  of  the  Common  Information  Sharing  Environment 
(CISE)  for  the  creation  of  a  decentralised  maritime 
information exchange system. 

	 Training

to 

follow 

line  with 

In 
the 
related  Administrative  Board 
recommendation14,  EFCA  continued 
the 
implemented  working  methods  for  the  establishment  and 
development  of  the  Core  Curricula.  The  work  with  the 
creation  of  a  comprehensive  Core  Curricula  culminated 
during 2014 in that all the remaining courses were approved 
by the Steering Committee and made ready for publication. 
Furthermore,  the  Steering  Committee  took  the  decision 
to  enhance  the  Port  inspection  and  Sea  inspection  Core 
Curricula to cover the regional aspects of the new CFP for the 
benefit of the union inspectors. During 2014, EFCA held 47 
training activities including regional workshops, exchange of 
best practices, training the trainers, union inspector training, 
FIS-training and training for third countries at the request of 
the Commission as well as tailored training on the request of 
individual Member States.

13  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  No  404/2011  of  8  April  2011  laying  down  detailed  rules  for  the  implementation  of  Council  Regulation  (EC) 
No 1224/2009 establishing a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy; OJ of the European Union L 112 
of 30.4.2011, p. 1. 

14  Administrative  Board  recommendation  no.  2.3.2.,  following  the  5  year  independent  external  evaluation  of  EFCA.  Both  documents  are  available  at  

http://www.efca.europa.eu/pages/home/docs_basicdocs.htm

19

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency1.3. Operational Activities

EFCA OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES - ACHIEVEMENTS 201415

120.00 %

100.00 %

80.00 %

60.00 %

40.00 %

20.00 %

0.00 %

100.00 %

81.76 %

OPERATIONS

8.83 %

9.26 %

0.14 %

Available

Achieved

Enterprise
Architecture

Postponed

Cancelled

1.3.1. Operational Coordination

Introduction

is 

responsible 

the  European  body 

for 
EFCA 
organising  operational  coordination  of  control  activities 
and  provide  assistance  on  that  respect  to  the  Member 
States and the Commission. These activities are organised 
mainly  through  regional  Joint  Deployment  Plans  (JDP), 
but also include assistance to the European Commission 
on their relations with international fisheries organisations 
and organisation of training activities.

The  JDPs  are  established  for  fisheries/areas  that  are 
considered  a  priority  by  the  European  Commission  and 
the Member States concerned. They can refer to:

• 

 European  waters  to  which  a  Specific  Control  and 
the 
Inspection  Programme  (SCIP)  adopted  by 
Commission  in  concert  with  the  Member  States 
applies, or

15 Available= 2014 budget allocated to Operations (Title III) 
    Achieved= 2014 budget consumed and carried-forward for 2014 activities 
   Enterprise Architecture = the  portion scheduled for 2015
   Postponed = 2014 budget carried-forward for 2015 activities  
   Cancelled = 2014 budget cancelled and not carried-forward

20

• 

 International  waters  under  the  competence  of  a 
Regional  Fisheries  Management  Organisation 
(RFMO), where EFCA is requested to coordinate the 
implementation  of  the  European  obligations  under 
the International Control and Inspection Scheme.

The JDPs consist of three phases: planning, implementation 
and assessment:

1)   The  JDPs  establish  the  planning  of  the  fisheries 
control means to be deployed by the Member States 
at sea and ashore, the information to be shared, the 
communication details and common rules to ensure 
a cooperative deployment of the control means in the 
area, based on a regional risk analysis developed by 
the Member States and EFCA. 

2)  The  JDPs  establish  that  the  deployment  of  pooled 
national  means  is  coordinated  by  EFCA  through 
coordination centres in charge (CCIC) in a Member 
State  or  the  presence  of  national  coordinators  at 
EFCA  premises.  It  is  implemented  through  two 
common groups:

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencya.  A  Regional  Steering  Group  (RSG)  composed 
of  Commission,  Member  States  and  EFCA 
representatives  is  in  charge  of  ensuring  the 
proper implementation of the plan.

b.  A  Technical  Joint  Deployment  Group  (TJDG), 
composed  of  Member  States  and  EFCA  staff, 
is in charge of the follow-up of the daily control 
activities  and  adopts  the  decisions  needed  to 
guarantee an effective deployment of the means.

Through  the  JDPs,  different  elements  to  improve  the 
control  and  inspection  at  a  regional  level  are  discussed 
and  implemented.  The  Regional  Steering  Group  serves 
as a forum for discussion and exchange of best practices 
at  a  regional  level.  It  includes  the  implementation  at  a 
regional level of projects concerning regional risk analysis, 
best  practices  for  coordination  and  the  optimum  use  of 
information tools, and the assessment of cost effectiveness 
of control operations.

3)  The JDP is evaluated and assessed yearly by EFCA 
in  cooperation  with  the  Member  States.  Special 
attention is given to the risks for non-compliance that 
are  considered  in  the  risk  analysis  of  the  following 
period.

During 2014, five JDPs and a Joint Control Work Programme 
for the Black Sea have been implemented. The JDPs are 
the tool to implement the Specific Control and Inspection 
Programmes  adopted  by  the  European  Commission 
following article 95 of the EU Control Regulation.

A description on each JDP is provided in the following sub-
sections. 

1.3.1.1. North Sea and Baltic Sea

Staff

ACTIVITY

North Sea and Baltic Sea

CODE

Unit C

RESOURCES

Planned 

1 AD, 4 AST, 1 SNE

Final 

1 AD, 4 AST, 1 SNE

Planned:  

€ 275 000

Standard Budget

BL – 3100

Consumed: 

€ 203,580

Implementation rate:                         74%

Planned: 

€ 1,275,502

ABMS

Code 1.1

Consumed: 

€ 1,206,675

Implementation rate:                         95%

The North Sea (NS) JDP covers cod (COD), sole (SOL) 
and  plaice  (PLE)  fisheries  and  the  Baltic  Sea  (BS)  JDP 
includes all main species in the area: cod (COD), salmon, 
(SAL) sprat (SPR) and herring (HER).

Activities  under  JDP  cooperation 
include  planning, 
implementation and assessment of joint control operations 
with permanent exchange of information and intelligence, 

workshops  for  inspectors,  and  exchanges  between  MS 
inspectors.

Further  to  the  JDP  activities,  EFCA  was  also  supporting 
MS  regional  cooperation  groups  such  as  Scheveningen 
(for  the  North  Sea)  and  BALTFISH  (for  the  Baltic  Sea) 
in  the  implementation  of  the  new  CFP,  namely  on  the 
provisions related to the landing obligation.

21

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyObjective 

Uniform and effective application of CFP rules in the North 
Sea and adjacent areas, and the Baltic Sea.

Main activity results 

Adoption  of  Regional  JDPs  for  North  Sea  and  Baltic 
Sea for 2014 and 2015

Both JDPs were adopted in accordance to plan. These JDPs 
are  aligned  with  the  EFCA  Multiannual  work  programme 
ambitions, with year-round joint campaigns and enhanced 
agreements  regarding  the  exchange  of  information.  The 
permanent exchange of ERS and possibly the use of the 
EIR  system,  together  with  the  introduction  of  FISHNET 
and associated EFCA Fisheries Information Systems have 
been agreed for the JDPs campaigns in 2015. 

An  agreement  was  also  concluded  at  RSG  level  and 
reflected  in  the  JDPs  text  to  implement  a  project  aiming 
at facilitating the risk assessment of the different fisheries 
segments in the areas under the landing obligation.

Implementation of JDP campaigns

In tight cooperation with the TJDG, JDP campaigns were 
implemented in both the North Sea and Baltic Sea area. 
There  was  an  enhancement  of  the  “mid-term”  planning 
role for the TJDG so as to better adapt the control strategy 
and  deployment  of  means  to  fisheries  circumstances  as 
they occur. 

Annexes  I.1  and  I.2  provide  a  general  overview  on 
activities performed during the NS and BS JDPs.

landing  obligation  project  began 

to  be 
The  EFCA 
implemented  in  the  JDP  for  the  Baltic  Sea.  This  project 
has  been  quite  instrumental  in  providing  key  information 
(discard  data)  for  the  development  of  a  risk  assessment 
per fishery on the risk of non-compliance with the landing 
obligation in the Baltic Sea upon request by the BALTFISH 
group.

The  availability  of  fishing  vessels  target  list  in  joint 
campaigns in the NS and BS JDPs was slightly below the 
target  KPI  (see  table  on  KPIs).  The  three  MS  which  did 
not exchange target vessels in Baltic Sea confirmed that 
they were carrying out risk analysis to identify vessels of 
interest  and  will  inform  the  TJDG  accordingly  in  future. 
This mismatch, however, did not have any financial impact 
for EFCA.

The  overall  number  of  exchanges  at  sea  and  land 
inspections  (man  days  in  joint  teams)  for  the  BS  and 
NS JDP is clearly above the target KPI. In some specific 
campaigns  (e.g.  Southern  North  Sea),  the  austerity 
measures  adopted  in  some  MS,  the  sometimes  short-
notice in change of plans by some MS and the increased 
use  of  Union  inspectors  in  the  waters  of  a  different  MS 
have affected the execution of the planned exchanges.

Workshop(s) and best practices for Union inspectors 
in JDPs

EFCA organised workshops where the matters related to 
the  uniform  and  effective  application  of  CFP  rules  were 
analysed from a practical point of view with the Member 
States inspectors involved in day to day work in the joint 
campaigns. 

22

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyThe below table presents an overview of issues discussed:

Event

Main issues discussed

North Sea Workshop 

Baltic Sea Workshop 

Use of ERS information for MSC activities by inspectors
Risk analysis system supporting daily work of inspectors in MS
Practical implementation of sampling plans

Monitoring and evaluation of the compliance with the landing obligations 
Harmonised methodology for estimation of discard quantities in the last haul
Best practices concerning the work of joint and mixed teams of inspectors 

Additional  contribution  to  the  implementation  of  the 
training road map to Member States Union inspectors 
(regional/national level)

EFCA  staff,  during  the  missions  to  the  Member  States 
concerned,  was  able  to  address  specific  issues  of  the 
uniform  and  effective  application  of  CFP  rules  with 
inspectors and the staff of the coordination centres.

JDP Risk analysis 

EFCA  Regional  Risk Analysis  system  has  facilitated  the 
planning  by  providing  the  medium  to  long-term  strategic 
objectives for the JDPs. 

EFCA  organised  Regional  Risk  Analysis  Workshops 
with the participation of experts from the MS concerned. 
Experts identified the non-compliance risks respectively in 
both  JDP  areas.  The  below  table  summarises  the  main 
risks identified for the area:

The highest risk threats as identified in the results of the regional risk analysis carried out in 2014 for the 
North Sea Joint Deployment Plan.

ICES areas covered by the North Sea 
Joint Deployment Plan

t
a
g
e
t
t
a
K

k
a
r
r
e
g
a
k
S

Fish species covered by NS SCIP

COD

COD

IVa

IVb

IVc

Vb & 
VIa

VIIa

VIId

COD
SOL
PLE

COD
SOL
PLE

COD
SOL
PLE

COD

COD

COD

The highest identified threats Gear type

Fishing in closed areas, 
closed seasons

High grading or illegal 
discarding of catches

Failure to report a landing

Failure to report a landing

Incorrect mesh size

active

active

active

passive

active

Prohibited fishing gear

active

Use of illegal attachments

active

-

-

-

COD

COD

COD

-

-

-

-

COD

COD

-

COD

COD

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

COD

-

-

-

-

-

SOL

SOL

-

SOL
PLE

SOL
PLE

SOL
PLE

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

COD

-

-

-

-

23

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyThe highest threats indented through the results of the regional risk analysis carried out in 2014 within the 
framework of the Baltic Sea Joint Deployment Plan.

ICES areas covered by the Baltic Sea 
Joint Deployment Plan

22-24

25-29

30-31

32

Fish species covered by BS SCIP

COD, HER, SAL, SPR

The highest identified 
threats

Fishing in closed areas, 
closed seasons

Incorrect recording of 
species/weight in logbook

Gear type

passive

active

-

-

-

SAL

-

HER, SPR

HER, SPR

HER, SPR

Failure to report a landing

passive

COD

-

-

-

JDP Assessment

EFCA  assesses  the  effectiveness  of  JDPs  on  the  basis 
of  performance  criteria  and  benchmarks,  by  a  common 
evaluation  with  MS  and  the  EC,  including  common 
reporting of joint control activities at regional level. 
During  2014,  a  standardised  year-round  reporting  was 
further  substantiated  with  3  month  progress  reports, 
6  month  mid-term  assessment  report  and  an  annual 
assessment  of  effectiveness  of  JDPs  and  associated 
performance  indicators,  delivered  by  June  each  year. 
EFCA  also  continued  to  produce  for  Member  States 
the  1st  draft  of  the  SCIP’s  report  related  to  control  and 
inspection activities.

Baltic  Sea:  The  main  types  of  suspected  infringements 
discovered were: 

i.  Not fulfilling reporting obligations; 
ii.  Use of prohibited or non-compliant gear. 

Workshops  /  seminars  on  the  sea  basin  regional 
approach in support of the new CFP: 

EFCA 
regularly  cooperates  with  BALTFISH  and 
Scheveningen Groups. Such cooperation focused mostly 
in  the  preparation  of  a  regional  risk  assessment  for  the 
landing obligation.

The  JDP  assessment  reports  for  the  year  2013  were 
delivered  in  June  2014.  Some  key  features  of  the 
assessment reports were:

Furthermore,  and  upon  request  of  BALTFISH,  EFCA 
assists the Member States in the preparation of guidelines 
for  inspectors  in  the  context  of  the  introduction  of  the 
landing obligation as from January 2015.

North  Sea:  The  main  types  of  suspected  infringements 
discovered were: 

Communication:  Results  of  the  joint  campaigns  were 
published periodically in the EFCA webpage

i.  Not fulfilling reporting obligations; 
ii.  Use of prohibited or non-compliant gear;
iii.  Taking on board or landing of undersized fish.

24

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyDeliverables and key performance indicators in accordance  
with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

1.  Regional JDPs for 2014 and 2015

2.  Minutes of the Regional Steering Groups and Technical Joint Deployment Groups

3.  Joint campaign reports 

4.  Workshop(s)  and  best  practice  for  Union  inspectors  in  the  North  Sea  and  in  the 
Baltic  Sea  Workshop(s)  and  best  practice  for  Member  States  Union  inspectors 
(regional/national level)

5.  Strategic plan of Joint campaigns based on risk analysis

6.  Annual report on assessment of effectiveness of JDP, including results of analysis 

of the existence of non-compliance risk

7.  Report  of  results  of  assistance  in  relation  with  North  East Atlantic  third  countries 
(coastal states of the North East Atlantic and other Contracting Parties of NAFO/
NEAFC)

8.  Workshop(s) and/or seminar(s) on the sea basin regional approach and possible 

new provisions adopted by the CFP reform  

9.  Communication of JDP results on the Agency website

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

1. JDPs adoption

2. Number of campaign days per JDP

3. Percentage of campaign, sea and ashore days carried out as planned

4.  Control and inspection means deployed in accordance with the JDP 

schedule (% of total planned)

5. Man/days in joint inspection teams

6. Availability of fishing vessels target list in joint campaigns

7. Number of workshops for best practices delivered

TARGET 
JDPs adopted 

300

95%

90%

300

80%

2

8. Satisfaction rate - Union inspectors attending workshops

>80% good

Multiannual index to be used as a tendency for compliance evaluation purposes18

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

ACHIEVED

Yes

360

105%

100%

776

75%
216
80%17

Concept

Number of inspections 

Number of inspections with at least 1 suspected infringement

Inspections with at least one suspected infringement detected per day

North Sea

Baltic Sea

4,914

195

0.19

4,183

70

0.20

16  KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map.
17  KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map. 
18  Data available at the end of January 2015. Additional data may be received later from Member States.

25

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency1.3.1.2. North Atlantic and Western Waters

NAFO Executive Secretary

North Atlantic and Western Waters

Staff

ACTIVITY

CODE

Unit C

Standard Budget 

BL – B03120

ABMS

Code 1.2

RESOURCES

Planned                    1 AD, 5 AST   

Final                         1 AD, 5 AST

Planned: 

         € 275,000

Consumed: 

         € 180,218

Implementation rate:             66%

Planned: 

      € 1,388,092

Consumed 

      € 1,308,726

Implementation rate:            94%

The  Western  Waters  (WW)  JDP  covers  the  pelagic 
fisheries  for  mackerel  (MAC),  horse  mackerel  (JAX), 
anchovy (ANE), blue whiting (WHB) and herring (HER). 

The NAFO and NEAFC JDP sets the overall framework to 
coordinate  the  EU  participation  in  the  International  Control 
and  Inspection  programmes  for  the  areas  managed  by 

26

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencythose RFMOs. It is a year-round, multispecies JDP, in which 
MS  control  resources  are  pooled  in  a  complementary  way 
providing  an  optimal  answer  for  the  EU  responsibilities  in 
these areas. It also establishes certain functions delegated by 
the European Commission in relation to these two RFMOs.

Activities  under  JDP  cooperation 
include  planning, 
implementation and assessment of joint control operations 
with  permanent  exchange  of  information  and  intelligence, 
workshops  for  inspectors,  and  exchanges  between  MS 
inspectors.

EFCA  also  supports  the  EU  delegation  in  the  context  of 
the NAFO and NEAFC RFMOs activities

Waters JDP, recognising the need for different approaches 
between  the  large-scale  northern  component  and  the 
southern component of the fisheries.  

Assistance to joint control activities in the framework 
of demersal fisheries in Western waters

The  European  Commission  hosted  a  first  discussion 
meeting regarding possible cooperation in the framework 
of demersal fisheries in Western Waters. The meeting was 
attended  by  ES,  FR,  UK  and  IE  with  the  participation  of 
EFCA.  Focus was on risk management in the hake fishery 
and  exploring  the  possibilities  for  future  cooperation 
between Member States.

Objectives:

Implementation of JDP campaigns

• 

• 

 Uniform and effective application of CFP rules in the 
Western Waters of the EU 

 Coordinate  the  EU  participation  in  the  International 
Control  and  Inspection  Programmes  in  NAFO  and 
NEAFC

In tight cooperation with the TJDG, JDP campaigns were 
implemented in the Western Waters area. In view of the 
highly  seasonal  nature  of  the  fisheries  covered  by  this 
JDP, an adaptive control strategy was adopted with the 
deployment of means matching “core” fisheries periods. 

Main activity results

Adoption  of  Regional  JDPs  for  NAFO/NEAFC  and 
pelagic fisheries in Western Waters for 2014 and 2015

Both  JDPs  were  adopted  in  accordance  to  plan.  These 
JDPs are aligned with EFCA Multiannual work programme 
ambitions, with year-round joint campaigns and enhanced 
agreements  regarding  the  exchange  of  information.  The 
permanent  exchange  of  ERS  and  possibly  the  use  of 
the  EIR  system  (for  Western  Waters),  together  with  the 
introduction of FISHNET and associated EFCA Fisheries 
Information  Systems  have  been  agreed  for  the  JDPs 
campaigns in 2015. 

An  agreement  was  also  concluded  at  RSG  level  and 
reflected  in  the  JDPs  text  to  implement  a  project  aiming 
at facilitating the risk assessment of the different fisheries 
segments  in  the  area  under  the  landing  obligation.  The 
implementation of this project was agreed for the Western 

Annexes I.3 and I.4 provide a general overview on activities 
performed during the NAFO/NEAFC and the WW JDPs.

The  EFCA  Landing  Obligation  (LO)  project  was  initiated 
and has been yielding good results and allowing managers 
to  build  up  catch  profiles  for  the  pelagic  fisheries  in 
Western  Waters.  In  terms  of  methodology,  there  are 
substantial  differences  between  the  approach  adopted 
for the large-scale northern component (based on grame 
size analyses) and the southern component (detailed last 
haul  observations  of  all  catches,  their  composition  and 
observed discards).

In the NAFO and NEAFC areas, EFCA coordinated the EU 
contribution  to  both  international  inspection  and  control 
schemes. The coordination was provided on the spot for 
EFCA  staff  in  four  seagoing  missions  in  NAFO  and  two 
missions  in  NEAFC.  During  seagoing  missions  without 
the  presence  of  an  EFCA  coordinator,  technical  support 
to Member State inspectors is given from EFCA premises.

27

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
Under  the  JDP  pelagic  fisheries  in  WW  the  planned 
exchanges  of  inspectors  at  sea  and  ashore  were  not  fully 
executed.  This  JDP  concerns  fisheries  of  a  high  seasonal 
nature, and the planned period for exchange of inspectors is 
not always coincident with the fisheries period. This seems to 
be a problem for some MS, which have not so much flexibility 
on  the  planned  periods  of  exchanges.  The  increased  lack 
of  human  resources  is  also  presented  by  some  MS  as  an 
obstacle to fulfil their commitment in terms of exchanges.

For  the  pelagic  fisheries  in  WW  JDP,  the  availability 
of  target  vessels  provided  by  MS  was  also  below  the 
expected KPI target (about 55%):

 -  

 In the Northern component of the campaign, the main 
risks were related to high-grading and slipping, but as 
a  matter  of  fact  it  is  very  difficult  to  detect  instances 
of  this  practice.  The  specific  joint  action  scheme  to 
monitor  the  accurate  recording  of  catches  in  fishing 
logbooks (“sampling project”) should help to gain some 
knowledge of this practice. In the Southern component, 
global  targeting  was  exercised  by  fishery  (mainly 
mackerel)  and  by  fleet  segments  (mainly  bottom 
trawlers  in  shallow  depths),  rather  than  by  individual 
vessels included in a vessel list.  

Implementation of the tasks delegated to EFCA by the 
European Commission

EFCA  has  implemented  different  tasks  delegated  by  the 
European Commission related to the notification to NAFO 
and  NEAFC  of  different  information  resulting  from  the 
inspection activities deployed by the Member States:

•	 Regarding NAFO, this information includes list of 
observers, inspectors and inspection means. 

•	 Regarding NEAFC, EFCA is providing the NEAFC 
Secretariat  with  lists  of  inspectors  and  inspection 
means as well as compiled annual reports on EU 
inspection activities in the NEAFC Regulatory Area. 

EFCA sends all originals of inspection reports carried out 
by Member States inspectors in both RFMO areas to flag 
states of fishing vessels with copies of inspection reports 
being sent to both RFMO Secretariats. 

Participation  of Agency  staff  as  Union  inspectors  in 
international waters 

During  2014  one  EFCA  staff  participated  in  the  NEAFC 
Regulatory Area as a Union NEAFC inspector. 

However, this situation did not have any financial impact 
for EFCA.

Workshop(s) and best practice

EFCA organised workshops where the matters related to the 
uniform and effective application of CFP rules were analysed 
from  a  practical  point  of  view  with  the  Member  States 
inspectors involved in day to day work in the joint campaigns. 

28

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyThe below table presents an overview of issues discussed:

Event

Main issues discussed

Western Waters Workshop Guidelines to apply the methodology for the collection of ‘last haul’ Discussion on 

data collection methodology for the northern component pelagic fisheries in WW.
Practical exercises were executed  to simulate scenarios

NAFO annual training

NEAFC annual training

Amendments agreed in last NAFO Annual Meeting
NAFO Control and Enforcement Measures and their application
NAFO Port State Control Scheme
NAFO risk analysis system
Practical exercises were executed  to simulate scenarios

Amendments agreed in last NEAFC Annual Meeting
NEAFC Scheme of Control and Enforcement
NEAFC recommendations
Practical exercises were executed to simulate scenarios

It should be outlined that during 2014, 75% of EU NAFO 
and NEAFC inspectors which participated in sea missions 
attended EFCA training.

EFCA  Regional  Risk Analysis  system  has  facilitated  the 
planning  by  providing  the  medium  to  long-term  strategic 
objectives for the JDPs. 

Additional  contribution  to  the  implementation  of  the 
training road map to Member States Union inspectors 
(regional/national level)

EFCA staff provided a specific training for the NEAFC area 
to Irish inspectors.

EFCA  organised  Regional  Risk  Analysis  Workshops 
with the participation of experts from the MS concerned. 
Experts identified the non-compliance risks respectively in 
both  JDP  areas.  The  below  table  summarises  the  main 
risks identified for the area:

JDP Risk analysis 

During 2014, a risk analysis procedure which provides for a 
standardised assessment of risk to be submitted by the flag 
Member State of the fishing vessel to the port Member State 
of landing was implemented in the context of the NAFO JDP. 
In  respect  of  landings  from  a  fishing  vessel  from  another 
Contracting Party, it was agreed that EFCA will prepare and 
send the risk analysis to the port Member State.

29

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyTable:         RISKS IN THE PELAGIC FISHERIES

JDP-WW-2014-01: North

THREAT

ANE

HER

JAX

MAC

WHB

Misrecording of catches

Incorrect catch composition

High Grading

Slipping

Misreporting of Fishing Area

Illegal landing

Transport / Marketing

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

30%

26%

34%

27%

31%

21%

29%

31%

25%

30%

25%

36%

20%

31%

39%

26%

54%

52%

41%

24%

26%

24%

20%

27%

20%

20%

17%

24%

JDP-WW-2014-02: South

THREAT

ANE

HER

JAX

MAC

WHB

Misrecording of catches

Incorrect catch composition

High Grading

Slipping

Misreporting of Fishing Area

Illegal landing

Transport / Marketing

40%

39%

35%

35%

39%

40%

39%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

50%

40%

30%

30%

50%

50%

50%

60%H

56%

36%

36%

40%

60%

60%

48%

32%

32%

32%

32%

32%

44%

COLOUR KEY

Very low

Low

Medium

High

JDP Assessment

EFCA  assesses  the  effectiveness  of  JDPs  on  the  basis 
of  performance  criteria  and  benchmarks,  by  a  common 
evaluation  with  MS  and  the  EC,  including  common 
reporting of joint control activities at regional level. 

During  2014,  a  standardised  year-round  reporting  was 
further  substantiated  with  3  month  progress  reports, 
6  month  mid-term  assessment  report  and  an  annual 
assessment  of  effectiveness  of  JDPs  and  associated 
performance  indicators,  delivered  by  June  each  year. 
EFCA  also  continued  to  produce  for  Member  States 
the  1st  draft  of  the  SCIP’s  report  related  to  control  and 
inspection activities.

The  JDP  assessment  reports  for  the  year  2013  were 
delivered  in  June  2014.  Some  key  features  of  the 
assessment reports were:

Western  Waters:  The  main  types  of  suspected  infringe-
ments discovered were: 

i.  Reporting obligations;
ii.  Gear compliance.

NAFO  and  NEAFC:  The  main 
infringements discovered were: 

types  of  suspected 

i.  Vessel documentation;
ii.  Labelling of catches.

Assistance  to  EU  Delegation  for  NAFO  and  NEAFC 
international meetings

EFCA  assisted  the  EU  Delegation  in  the  annual  meeting 
of NAFO and in the meetings of the control body of NAFO 
(STACTIC) and NEAFC (PECCOE).

30

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyAssistance in relation with North Atlantic Countries

Workshops  /  seminars  on  the  sea  basin  regional 
approach in support of the new CFP: 

EFCA, on request of the European Commission and the 
Member States organised an exchange of inspectors with 
Canada in the framework of NAFO. Two EU MS inspectors 
from LT and LV embarked a Canadian patrol vessel acting 
as NAFO inspectors.

EFCA has offered its cooperation to the Western Waters 
Member  States  Groups.  During  2014,  this  cooperation 
has been mostly achieved through the landing obligation 
seminars organised by EFCA.

EFCA also participated to the meetings with Norway, Faroe 
and Iceland in relation to the control of pelagic fisheries in 
the North Atlantic. 

Communication:  Results  of  the  joint  campaigns  were 
published periodically in the EFCA webpage

Deliverables and key performance indicators in accordance 
with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

1.  Regional JDPs for 2014 and 2015

2.  Minutes  of  the  Regional  Steering  Groups  and  Technical  Joint 

Deployment Groups

3.  Joint campaign reports 

4.  Quarterly reports of control activities 

5.  Report  on  the  implementation  of  the  tasks  delegated  to  EFCA  in 

relation to inspection activities in NEAFC 

6.  Workshop(s) and best practice for NAFO and  NEAFC inspectors, and 

Union inspectors in Western waters

7.  Workshop(s)  and  best  practice  for  Member  States  Union  inspectors 

(regional/national level)

8.  Strategic plan of Joint campaigns based on risk analysis

9.  Annual report on assessment of effectiveness of JDP, including results 

of analysis of the existence of non-compliance risk

10.  Reports  of  participation  of  Agency  staff  assisting  the  European 
Commission  in  the  relations  with  International  organisation  and  third 
Countries.

11.  Report  of  results  of  assistance  in  relation  with  North  Atlantic  third 
Countries  (coastal  states  of  the  North  East  Atlantic  and  other 
Contracting Parties of NAFO/NEAFC)

12.  Workshop(s)  and/or  seminar(s)  on  the  sea  basin  regional  approach 

and possible new provisions adopted by the CFP reform 

13.  Communication of JDP results on the Agency web site

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

31

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyKEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

1.  JDPs adoption

JDPs adopted 

2.  Number of campaign days JDP western waters

3.  Number of campaign days JDP NAFO-NEAFC

4.  Percentage of campaign, sea and ashore days carried out 

as planned

5.  Control and inspection means deployed in accordance with 

the JDP schedule (% of total planned)

6.  Man/days in joint inspection teams

7.  Availability of fishing vessels target list in joint campaigns

8.  Number of workshops for best practices delivered

300

160

95%

90%

300

80%

3

9.  Satisfaction rate - Union inspectors attending workshops

>80% good

10.  Percentage  of  EU  NAFO  and  NEAFC  inspectors  at  sea 

trained 

50%

Yes

360

233

109%

93%

655

55%
419
97%20

75%21

Multiannual index to be used as a tendency for compliance evaluation purposes22
Western Waters

CONCEPT

NAFO & NEAFC

Number of inspections 

Number of inspections with at least 1 suspected infringement

Inspections  with  at  least  one  suspected  infringement  detected  per 
activity day

3,064

301

0.50

109

9

0.04

1.3.1.3. Mediterranean and Black Sea

Bluefin tuna seminar

19 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
20 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
21  KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
22 Data available at the end of January 2015. Additional data may be received later from Member States.

32

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
ACTIVITY

Mediterranean and Black Sea

Staff

CODE

Unit C

Standard Budget 

BL- B03130

RESOURCES

Planned        1 AD, 3 AST, 2 SNE 
Final             1 AD, 3 AST, 1 SNE23

Planned: 

Consumed: 

   € 150 000 

    € 227,890

Implementation rate:             152%

ABMS

Code 1.3

Consumed 

Planned: 

 € 1,027,583

 € 1,168,581

Implementation rate:             114%

The EFCA activities in support of a uniform and effective 
application  of  the  CFP  rules  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
and  the  Black  Sea  are  organised  mostly  through  the 
implementation  of  a  JDP  for  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  a 
Joint  Control  Work  Programme  for  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  cooperation  between  MS  and  with  the  European 
Commission.

The  Mediterranean  JDP  is  organised  to  implement  the 
Specific  Control  and  Inspection  programme  adopted  by 
the  European  Commission,  following  article  95  of  the 
EU  Control  Regulation.  It  covers  the  fisheries  for  bluefin 
tuna  in  the  Eastern  Atlantic  and  the  Mediterranean,  the 
swordfish  fishery  in  the  Mediterranean  and  the  fisheries 
for anchovy and sardines in the Adriatic Sea. 

The JDP’s primary objective is to coordinate MS monitoring, 
control  and  inspection  activities  in  order  to  enhance  the 
enforcement  and  the  uniform  implementation  of  EU  and 
International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic 
Tuna  (ICCAT)  conservation  and  management  measures. 
This JDP serves also to coordinate the EU participation in 
the  ICCAT  International  Control  and  Inspection  Scheme. 
It  also  establishes  certain  functions  delegated  by  the 
European Commission in relation to ICCAT.

Activities  under  JDP  cooperation 
include  planning, 
implementation and assessment of joint control operations 

with permanent exchange of information and intelligence, 
workshops  for  inspectors,  and  exchanges  between  MS 
inspectors.

EFCA  supports  the  EU  delegation  in  the  context  of  the 
ICCAT international meetings.

EFCA  is  also  supporting  cooperation  between  Bulgaria 
and Romania on the monitoring and control of Black Sea 
turbot.

Objective

Uniform  and  effective  application  of  CFP  rules  in  the 
Mediterranean and Black Sea

Main activity results

Adoption of Regional JDP Mediterranean Sea for 2014

The  JDP  was  adopted  in  accordance  to  plan.  This  JDP 
is  aligned  with  EFCA  Multiannual  work  programme 
ambitions, with year-round joint campaigns and enhanced 
agreements  regarding  the  exchange  of  information.  The 
permanent exchange of ERS, together with the introduction 
of  FISHNET  and  associated  EFCA  Fisheries  Information 
Systems was agreed for the JDPs campaigns in 2014. 

23 One secondment has not been prolonged by a Member State.

33

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
 
 
 
An  agreement  was  also  concluded  at  RSG  level  and 
reflected  in  the  JDPs  text  to  implement  a  project  aiming 
at facilitating the risk assessment of the different fisheries 
segments in the Mediterranean Sea.

In  2014,  the  Mediterranean  JDP  was  further  enhanced, 
and  is  now  organised  into  2  permanent  year-round 
campaigns, one in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean 
for swordfish and bluefin tuna and the other in the Northern 
Adriatic for sardine and anchovy stocks.

Adoption of Joint Control Work Programme for Black 
Sea in 2014

During  the  coordination  meeting  on  the  monitoring  and 
control  of  Black  Sea  turbot  held  in  Vigo,  a  planning  of 
mixed  and  joint  missions  for  2014  was  agreed  between 
Romania and Bulgaria. 

In light of this agreement a total of 14 missions of 2-3 days 
each  were  carried  out.  To  date,  36  inspections  (28  on 
land and 8 at sea) were undertaken by joint/mixed teams 
with the detection of one possible infringement. A total of 
36  controls  (checks  without  production  of  an  inspection 
report) were also implemented. EFCA staff participated in 
one mission.

the representation of both the fishing and farming Member 
States throughout the inspection activities and in particular 
those involving the use of stereoscopical cameras to define 
the number and weight of bluefin tuna being caged. The 
SMT was deployed in Spanish farms and covered 100% 
of caging operations over 19 days and in Malta covering 
70% of caging operations over 20 days.  As provided for 
under the JDP, EFCA staff participated in all deployments 
of the SMT.

Throughout the core periods of 2014 JDP joint campaigns, 
the full suite of EFCA Fisheries Information Systems (FIS) 
were  deployed,  namely  FISHNET,  ERS,  Marsurv-3  and 
JADE.

Due  to  the  relatively  short  fishing  period  and  early 
consummation  of  BFT  quotas  in  the  Mediterranean  by 
purse seiners in the main campaign, some JDP activities 
were subsequently diverted to land operations where the 
percentage of inspector exchanges versus those planned 
was increased.

Adoption of the control programme for pelagic species 
in the Adriatic Sea

These fisheries were incorporated to the JDP.

Implementation of JDP Campaigns

Workshop(s) and best practice for ICCAT CPCs

As  provided  for  under  the  JDP,  a  Technical  Joint 
Deployments  Group  for  the  bluefin  tuna  and  swordfish 
campaign  was  formed  of  Member  State  experts  and 
permanently  based  in  EFCA  premises  throughout  the 
period 15 May – 30 June 2014.  

A  Technical  Workshop  with  the  participation  of  ICCAT 
Contracting Parties (CPC) was held in Vigo by EFCA on 
request  of  the  European  Commission.  Representatives 
from  Algeria,  Egypt,  Tunisia,  Turkey  and  the  European 
Union attended the Workshop.  

For  the  first  time  since  2008,  a  Member  State  hosted 
the  Coordination  centre  during  the  month  of  July  for  the 
campaign. The rest of the year the coordination centre has 
been placed in EFCA premises.

A  new  action  in  the  2014  Mediterranean  JDP  was  the 
formation  and  deployment  of  a  Special  Mixed  Team 
(SMT)  in  bluefin  tuna  farms  at  the  time  of  inspection  of 
caging  activities.  The  team  was  constructed  to  facilitate 

The workshop focused on monitoring and control activities 
in  the  bluefin  tuna  fishery  and  in  particular  the  use  and 
application of evolving technology including stereoscopical 
camera  systems.  Participants  exchanged  information 
and  views  regarding  their  general  control  strategies  and 
existing  monitoring  and  control  systems  in  place.  The 
ICCAT CPCs presented the cooperation that was already 
in place between them in monitoring and control activities, 
including  exchanges  of  inspectors  at  sea.  It  was  agreed 

34

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
that  cooperation  is  an  important  element  to  ensure  the 
full implementation of ICCAT rules and agreed to further 
explore possible future cooperation.

EFCA organised workshops where the matters related to the 
uniform and effective application of CFP rules were analysed 
from  a  practical  point  of  view  with  the  Member  States 
inspectors involved in day to day work in the joint campaigns. 

Workshop(s)  and  best  practice  for  Member  States 
ICCAT and Union inspectors and Joint Control Work 
Programme in the Black Sea

The below table presents an overview of issues discussed:

Event

Main issues discussed

BFT Annual seminar New ICCAT rules 

Special Mixed Team 
training

Adriatic Regional 
seminar

Black Sea regional 
seminar

Reading and estimation of videos on bluefin tuna caging

Implementation of the last haul exercise for landing obligation

Risk analysis for inspectors

It should be outlined that during 2014, 80% of EU ICCAT 
inspectors  which  participated  in  sea  missions  attended 
EFCA trainings.

Additional  contribution  to  training  to  Member  States 
ICCAT and Union inspectors

On request of Member States, EFCA staff members have 
also supported national training courses in: Cyprus, Italy, 
Romania, Bulgaria, Malta.

JDP Risk analysis

EFCA Regional Risk Analysis system will be implemented 
in this JDP for the planning of 2015, and will provide the 
medium to long-term strategic objectives for the JDPs. 
EFCA  has  requested  catch  and  landing  data  for  the 
Mediterranean  fisheries  in  order  to  prepare  the  annual 
risk  analysis  exercise  to  be  organised  in  January  2015, 
with the participation of experts from the MS concerned. 
Experts will identify the non-compliance risks in the JDP 
areas. 

Upon  request  of  the  European  Commission,  training 
for Third Country inspectors

JDP assessment

Not  applicable  in  2014  (a  request  from  the  European 
Commission  was  received 
for  2015  and  concerns 
the  General  Fisheries  Commission  for  Mediterranean 
(GFCM)).

EFCA  assesses  the  effectiveness  of  JDPs  on  the  basis 
of  performance  criteria  and  benchmarks,  by  a  common 
evaluation  with  MS  and  the  EC,  including  common 
reporting of joint control activities at regional level. 

Participation  of Agency  staff  as  Union  inspectors  in 
international waters

Not  applicable  in  2014  (no  EFCA  staff  missions  in 
International waters)

During  2014,  an  annual  assessment  of  effectiveness 
of  JDPs  and  associated  performance  indicators  was 
delivered  by  June.  This  report  only  refers  to  the  bluefin 
tuna fisheries.

35

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyThe  main  types  of  suspected  infringements  discovered 
were: 

(Turkey,  Montenegro,  Southern  Mediterranean 
countries)

i.  Reporting obligations;
ii.  Technical measures.

Not  applicable  this  year  (no  request  from  the  European 
Commission)

Assistance  to  EU  Delegation  for  ICCAT  and  GFCM 
international meetings

To organise workshop(s) and/or seminar(s) on the sea 
basin regional approach and possible new provisions 
adopted by the CFP reform 

As in previous years, EFCA staff have participated in and 
provided technical assistance to the EU delegation in the 
ICCAT  Annual  meetings  and  intersessional  meetings  of 
the  Compliance  Committee,  Permanent  Working  Group 
and Integrated Monitoring Measures Working Groups. An 
EFCA staff member has currently the position of Chair of 
the ICCAT e-BCD Technical Working Group.

Upon request of the European Commission assistance 
in relations with ICCAT and GFCM CPC third countries 

During 2014, this cooperation has been mostly achieved 
through  the  landing  obligation  seminars  organised  by 
EFCA.

Communication

Results of the joint campaigns were published periodically 
in the EFCA webpage

Deliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

1. JDP for 2014

2. Joint Control Work Programme for Black Sea in 2014

3.  Joint Control Work Programme for Pelagic fisheries in the Adriatic 

Sea in 2014

4.  Minutes of the Steering Group and reports by Technical Joint 

Deployment Group

5.  Regional workshop for Black Sea to analyse outcomes of the 2013 
turbot campaign and prepare draft national programmes for 2014

6. Joint campaign reports

7.  Workshop(s) and best practice for Union inspectors involved in 

Mediterranean JDP, inspectors involved in the Joint Control in the 
Black Sea,  Member States ICCAT Union inspectors (regional/
national level) and ICCAT CPCs

8. Strategic plan of Joint campaigns based on risk analysis 

ACHIEVED

Yes

Yes

Yes 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

36

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyDELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

9.  Reports of participation of Agency staff to the meetings 

organised  assisting the European Commission in the relations 
with International organisations (ICCAT, GFCM) and ICCAT and 
GFCM CPC third Countries (Turkey, Montenegro and Southern 
Mediterranean countries) 

10.  Annual report on assessment of effectiveness of JDP, including 
results of analysis of the existence of non-compliance risk 

11.  Workshop(s) and/or seminar(s) on the sea basin regional approach 

and possible new provisions adopted by the CFP reform

12. Communication of JDP results on the Agency web site

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

1. JDPs adoption

2. Joint Control Work Programme for Black Sea adoption

3. Number of campaign days JDP Mediterranean

4.  Percentage of campaign, sea and ashore days carried out as 

planned

5.  Control and inspection means deployed in accordance with the JDP 

schedule (% of total planned)

6. Man/days in joint inspection teams

7. Availability of fishing vessels target list in joint campaigns

8. Number of workshops for best practices delivered

JDPs adopted 

Plan adopted

200

95%

90%

200

80%

3

9. Satisfaction rate - Union inspectors attending workshops

10. Percentage of EU- ICCAT inspectors at sea trained

>80% good

50%

Multiannual index to be used as a tendency for compliance evaluation purposes26

Number of inspections 

Number of inspections with at least 1 suspected infringement

Inspections with at least one suspected infringement detected per activity day

Yes

100%

240

140%

107%

380

85%

7

98%24

80%25

482

67

0.25

24 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
25 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
26 Data available at the end of January 2015. Additional data may be received later from Member States.

37

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency1.3.2. Programmes, plans and assessment

ACTIVITY

Programmes, Plans and assessment

Staff

CODE

Unit C

Standard Budget 

BL- B03160

RESOURCES

Planned                4 AD, 1 CA

Final                      4 AD, 1 CA

Planned: 

€ 75,000

Consumed: 

 € 200,452

Implementation rate:     267%

Planned 

€ 1,361,565

ABMS

Code 1.4

Consumed 

€ 1,332,724

Implementation rate:     98%

Introduction

Main activity results

Recognising  that  EFCA  regional  activities  would  benefit 
from  a  better  coordination  on  horizontal  related  issues 
such  as  planning,  implementation  and  assessment  of 
JDPs, a new fiche “Programmes, Plans and Assessment” 
was included in the EFCA AWP 2014. 

New projects were developed in response to client needs, 
which consider elements of internal policy and the business 
model,  provide  a  ‘think  tank’  forum  for  the  generation  of 
novel  approaches  to  EFCA  core  business  and  generates 
assistance to Member States in responding to the challenges 
of  a  new  CFP.  Particular  care  was  taken  to  promote  a 
coherent  development  amongst  common  priorities  of 
regional  EFCA  activities,  whilst  ensuring  that  regional 
specifications are considered during implementation.

Objectives 

a)   Uniform and effective implementation of workshops 

and best practice

b)  Assistance to Member States and third countries

c)   Risk  management  and  assessment  of  control 

operations

d)  Efficient coordination of the control activities

•	 A common strategy for effective 

implementation of the JDP cycle (planning, 
implementation and assessment)

In  close  cooperation  with  the  Regional  Desks,  further 
implementation 
steps  were 
the 
introduced 
of  harmonised  approaches  amongst 
the  planning, 
implementation and assessment of different JDPs.

towards 

Under the project “regional risk management”, an overall 
risk-based  approach  to  planning  was  developed  for  the 
different  JDPs.  Standardised  request  and  analysis  of 
data, so as to allow for the spatial and temporal analysis 
of  fisheries  and  subsequent  deployment  of  control  effort 
was undertaken.

Implementation  of  JDPs  was  subject  to  a  coordinated 
approach  amongst  the  different  regional  Desks,  both  in 
terms  of  deriving  best-practices  in  coordination  and  in 
promoting cross-use of EFCA coordinators from different 
regional desks.

Joint  assessment  procedures,  with  standard  reporting 
periods  and  similar  assessment  procedures  were 
implemented. 

24 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
25 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
26 Data available at the end of January 2015. Additional data may be received later from Member States.

38

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyTo define a general strategy for the EFCA workshops(s) 
and best practice actions for Union Inspectors in JDPs

This  activity  is  a  contribution  to  the  EFCA  training  road 
map. According to the WP 2014 the courses delivered by 
EFCA covered the CFP regulation in general and applied 
regionally,  and  were  not  limited  to  the  JDP  context.  The 

tentative  planning  was  completed  with  national  training 
assistance  on  request  of  the  Member  States.  The  main 
actions  on  contribution  to  the  training  roadmap  from  the 
operational  coordination  side  are  summarized  in  the 
table  below,  including  number  of  inspectors  trained  and 
outcome  of  the  evaluation  of  the  training  by  participants 
(main KPIs for this activity).

Overview of workshops and regional actions under JDPs in assistance to MS delivered in 2014

Area

Number of 
Workshops

Number of 
Participants

Overall evaluation 
(% Good/Very good)

Mediterranean and Black Sea

NAFO & NEAFC

Western Waters

Baltic Sea

North Sea

All areas (CCIC)

TOTAL

12

3

1

1

1

2

20

357

56

14

39

18

19

503

96%

90%

100%

95%

85%

67%

89%

The percentage of EU inspectors (out of the nearly 1600 
listed 
in  European  Commission  Decision  2014/120/
EU)  that  were  trained  by  EFCA  in  2014  was  up  to  11%. 
75% of the NAFO and NEAFC inspectors  who  took part 
in sea missions during the 2014 NAFO JDP and 80% of 
inspectors who took part in sea missions during the 2014 
BFT JDP have been trained by EFCA. 

A priority of EFCA has been to support the implementation of 
the landing obligation. EFCA organised two Focus Groups 
meetings in Dubrovnik in January 2014 and Gothenburg in 
June 2014.  During these meetings the state of play of the 
implementation of the landing obligation was presented by 
the  European  Commission  and  the  Member  States,  and 
several EFCA initiatives were presented and discussed:

The  feedback  from  the  participants  in  the  workshops 
(evaluation  surveys)  has  shown  a  high  level  of  overall 
satisfaction among the attendants. Overall, nearly 90% of 
course participants rated the workshops as good or very 
good. 

All  EFCA  training  actions  have  been  monitored  and 
coordinated by the Training Steering Committee of EFCA 
in order to have a comprehensive overview and a better 
picture  of  the  whole  process,  including  information  on 
costs of the different actions.

•	

 A  first  document  with  EFCA  recommendations  for 

the  implementation  of  the  landing  obligation  was 

presented, that was the basis of the JDP projects on 

the monitoring of the landing obligation developed 

during  2014  in  the  Baltic  Sea,  the  Mediterranean 
Sea and the Western Waters.

•	 The  new  PACT  scope  was  presented  during 
the  Goteborg  Seminar  in  June  2014,  as  a  global 

cooperation approach offered by EFCA to Member 

States  in  the  control  policy  implementation.  This 

approach was incorporated to the Multiannual Work 
Programme 2015-2019.

Assistance to the European Commission or the Member 
States  in  projects  related  to  the  implementation  of  the 
CFP

As  a  result,  a  specific  project  on  the  landing  obligation 
has  been  launched  in  the  Baltic  Sea,  Western  Waters 

39

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency(Pelagic) and Mediterranean Sea (Adriatic) JDP areas, as 
the species covered by the JDPs in these areas are being 
subject to the landing obligation from 1 January 2015. 

Other areas of work in relation to the preparation for the 
implementation of the Landing Obligation have been the 
participation  of  EFCA  as  active  observer  in  the  STECF 

meetings  on  the  Landing  Obligation  in  EU  Fisheries 
(Expert  working  groups,  EWG,  14-01  and  14-11  in 
February and September 2014 respectively), the support 
to  regional  MS  groups  (i.e.  BALTFISH,  Scheveningen) 
and also participation in related meetings of the regional 
ACs (see below table).

EFCA participation to ACs meetings

Advisory Council

Meetings

Date

Place

Mediterranean

Pelagic

North Western Waters

MEDAC General Meeting
MEDAC General Meeting
MEDAC LO Focus Group

Pelagic AC Discards WG
Pelagic AC Discards WG
Pelagic AC Meeting

NWWAC general meeting
NWWAC general meeting

Baltic Sea

North Sea

BSAC Technical WG
BSAC Executive Committee Meeting
BSAC-BALTFISH meeting on LO

NSAC Demersal WG
NSAC LO Working Group
NSAC Demersal WG 
NSAC LO Working Group 
NSAC Demersal WG 

7-8 May
8-10 Oct
20 Nov

4-5 Feb
10 Apr
9 Jul

Portorose
Split
Rome

The Hague
The Hague
The Hague

25 Mar
17-18 Sep

Dublin
Dublin

1 Apr
29 Oct
26 Nov

8-9 Apr
27 May
8 Jul
7-8 Oct
12 Nov

Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Vilnius

Paris
Schiphol
London
Amsterdam
Brussels

•	 To  establish 

joint  regional  risk  analysis 

systems in all JDPs

evaluate the risk level of the different Baltic Sea fisheries 
in relation to the landing obligation entering into force on 
1 January 2015. 

During  2014,  a  dedicated  project  was  launched  with  the 
objective  to  enhance  the  use  of  risk  based  approach  in 
the implementation of the JDPs. In 2014, the project has 
developed a standard process and associated guidelines 
for the assessment and management of a priority threat. 
The  project  also  reviewed  the  data  exchange  protocol 
used by Member States to share their lists of targets for 
inspection.

The  discards  threat  has  been  selected  as  a  case  study. 
The guidelines for priority risk assessment were used to 

Additional  activities  will  be  carried  out  in  2015,  including 
the  review  of  the  overall  risks  assessment  process 
used for the strategic planning of each JPD. Methods to 
evaluate the performance of the tools developed will also 
be investigated and implemented.

•	 To implement a project on MS legal systems 

in JDPs

40

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyWith  the  assistance  of  a  trainee,  EFCA  is  undertaking  a 
legal project which will entail the preparation of an initial 
inventory of the fisheries legal systems of fifteen Member 
States.  The  project  is  intended  to  establish  a  structured 
foundation of legal information which will form the basis of a 
planned longer term project to draw up specific procedural 
guidelines for Member State use in joint operations, to be 
discussed by the Regional Steering Groups

Implementation  of  a  project  to  analyse  the  cost-
effectiveness of control operations

EFCA  has  produced  an  estimation  of  2013  JDPs  costs, 
after  being  submitted  to  the  different  regional  steering 
groups  for  comments,  following  the  cost  methodology 
developed during 2013.

•	

Implementation  of  a  project  to  evaluate 
compliance trends in fisheries

To  define  common  procedures  and  establish  best-
practices  in  order  to  ensure  that  coordination  of 
control activities is organised efficiently

The  project  lasted  for  seven  months,  terminating  at  the 
end of June 2014. Seven different methods of evaluating 
compliance were examined:

o  Temporal trends of infringements.

o  Estimates of non-allocated catches made by 

regional bodies.

o  Alternative catch estimates.

o  EFCA Regional Risk Analysis (RRA).

o  Interviews of MCS personnel.

o  Questionnaires on compliance directed at 

industry.

o  Market Analyses

The  results  were  encompassed  in  four  detailed  reports 
which represent the key deliverables of the project.  

o  Evaluating  Fisheries  Compliance:  Pilot 

Project Summary Report

o  Towards  a  Compliance  Index:    Compliance 

survey and trade analyses

o  Towards  a  compliance  index:  Time  series 
infringement trends and interview results
o  Towards a compliance index: Information from 
the  Regional  Fisheries  Organisations  and 
comparing inspector and official landing data

Summary  presentations  reports  were  circulated  to  the 
Administrative Board prior to its meeting of 17 October 2014.  

EFCA  has  produced  a  manual  for  coordination  of 
campaigns  detailing  roles  and  responsibilities,  best-
practices and standard operational procedures to be used 
by the different regional JDPs.

This report should be considered as a “live document” and 
thus subject to improvements during the course of 2015. It 
has been mostly used when EFCA is receiving MS experts 
for coordination of JDP activities from EFCA and by EFCA 
coordinators when going to the different MS CCICs. 

Ensure 
coordination centre during the JDP campaigns

the  adequate  coverage  of 

the  EFCA 

EFCA  coordination  centre  is  mostly  utilized  for  JDP 
Coordination  by  MS  (in  2014  with  Belgium,  Croatia, 
France,  Italy,  Lithuania,  Malta,  Portugal,  Spain)  and  to 
host the TJDG during the Mediterranean campaign. EFCA 
staff has been available during these periods.

To assist third countries in the framework of Fisheries 
Partnership  Agreements  in  the  establishment  and/
or  maintenance  of  a  reliable  control  system  on  EC 
request

No  requests  have  been  received  from  the  European 
Commission. 

To  organise  exchange  of 
countries in the framework of Fisheries

inspectors  with  third 

41

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyNo  requests  have  been  received  from  the  European 
Commission. 

To  organize  best  practice  meetings  to  improve  the 
level playing field

In  tight  cooperation  with  the  regional  desks  JDPs  (see 
above  sub-sections),  workshops  directed  at  developing 
best-practices  and  exchange  of  experiences  amongst 
inspectors were organised.

 Deliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

1.  Report on contribution to the training road map.

2.  Reports  on  the  results  of  projects  requested  by  the  European 
Commission or Member States to facilitate the implementation 
of CFP measures.

3.  Report on assistance actions and follow-up.

4.  Report  on  MS  procedures  and  requirements  to  be  considered 
by Union inspectors when acting in waters of another Member 
State and follow-up.

5.  Report on regional risk analysis actions and follow-up.
6.  Report  on  the  implementation  of  the  project  to  evaluate 

compliance trends in fisheries.

7.  Report on the implementation of the project to analyse the cost-

effectiveness of control operations.
8.  3 meetings of the Focus Groups 1 and 2
9.  Road map 2014 to ensure that coordination of control activities 

is organised efficiently.

10. Workshop for CCIC/ACC representatives
11. Report detailing responsibilities, functions and best-practices for 

the coordination of control activities and follow-up.

12. Report  detailing  standard  operational  procedures  for  JDPs 

coordination from EFCA

13. Assistance 

in  establishing  and/or  maintaining  a  reliable 
control system in third countries in the framework of Fisheries 
Partnership Agreements on EC request 

14. Organisation of exchange of inspectors with third countries in the 
framework of Fisheries Partnership Agreements on EC request
15. Organisation  of  best  practice  meetings  to  improve  the  level 

playing field

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

2 meetings27

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No Request

No Request

Yes

27 Seminar planned for December 2014 was postponed to March 2015.

42

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyKEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

1.  JDPs with a full regional risk analysis system established

2. 

Implementation of cost estimation model in JDPs

3.  Methodology  for  compliance  evaluation  implemented  in 

JDPs

4.  Number of campaigns coordinated from EFCA 

5.  JDP  campaigns  implemented  following  the  best  practice 

guide of EFCA

6.  Percentage of EU inspectors trained by EFCA

50 %

100%

25%

5

75%

10%

75%

100%

60%

8

75%

11%28

Multiannual index to be used as a tendency for compliance evaluation purposes

Number of attendees to regional workshops organised by EFCA (CCIC)

19

1.3.3. Data monitoring and networks

ACTIVITY

Data Monitoring and Networks

Staff

CODE

Unit B

RESOURCES

Planned                 1 AD + 2 AST

Final                      1 AD + 2 AST

Standard Budget 

BL-B03010

Consumed 

Planned 

€ 421,000

€ 590,410

ABMS

Code 2.1

Introduction

Objectives

Implementation rate:          140%

Planned 

Consumed 

€ 1,204,748

€ 1,522,691

Implementation rate:          126%

In order to increase transparency between all collaborating 
parties  within  the  framework  of  the  Joint  Deployment 
Plans and thereby improve monitoring capabilities, EFCA 
continued its course to develop, enhance systems and to 
identify needs in the area of data monitoring and networks.  
For  that  same  reason,  EFCA  took  a  decision  to  design 
its  applications  in  such  a  way  that  they  would  function 
with  minimum  friction  with  most  of  the  stakeholders 
environments and FIS applications. 

In  accordance  with 
its  mandate  and  annual  work 
programme  objectives,  EFCA  worked  to  develop  and 
strengthen  the  skills,  abilities,  processes  and  resources 
that Member States need for the uniform application of the 
rules of the Common Fisheries Policy in the field of data 
monitoring and networks. 

During  2014,  EFCA  continued  to  provide  guidance  and 
to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  best  practices  for  building 
capacities in this area, whilst also developing information 
and data exchange solutions for joint control and inspection 
activities  within  the  EFCA  Fishery  Information  System 
(EFCA-FIS). The new EFCA-FIS consists of the full suite 
of operational applications which will be integrated within 
the  new  EFCA  Enterprise  Architecture  (EA).  Currently, 

28 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.

43

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
 
it  includes  the  VMS,  ERS,  EIR,  JADE  and  FISHNET 
systems. Marsurv is part of the EFCA FIS but will not be 
part of the EFCA EA. 

Regarding the envisioned Project Management standards, 
EFCA  management  identified  the  need  of  adopting  a 
Project  Management  framework  suitable  for  the  entire 
organisation.  The  project  scope  was  therefore  extended 
and will be handled during 2015. 

Main activity results

To organise meetings of the Working Group on Data 
Monitoring  and  Networks  for  the  exchange  of  best 
practices in related fields of interest.

In 2014, a number of contracts were signed in the domain 
of  Data  Monitoring  and  Networks.  Those  were  the  EIR 
Enhancement,  Fishnet  development  and  VMS  and  ERS 
maintenance  contracts.  With  the  delivery  of  the  new 
components of the EFCA-FIS and the rollout of the various 
systems  within  the  JDPs,  DMN  focused  its  efforts  on 

arranging the necessary meetings, briefings and training 
seminars associated with the use of the EFCA-FIS by the 
MS’s within the context of the JDPs. EFCA has made EIR, 
ERS,  Fishnet  and  Marsurv  available  to  all  participating 
parties  thereby  providing  all  the  necessary  support  to 
increase efficiency in JDPs. 

During  2014,  EFCA  provided  a  number  of  EFCA-FIS 
briefing sessions to MS’s and the European Commission, 
EFCA ERS & Data Management WG meetings were held 
in  conjunction  with  the  JDP  SG  meetings.  In  addition 
thereto, EFCA undertook an extensive EFCA-FIS training 
schedule in the MS’s. These training packages, which were 
focussed initially on the WW, NS and BS JDP participants, 
involved a combined Unit B/Unit C team visiting a total of 
15 MS and providing training on the use of the applications 
to 115 participants. In addition to the core training objective 
these  events  also  provided  an  opportunity  to  exchange 
best  practice  on  data  exchange  and  data  management 
within  the  context  of  JDPs.  Further  EFCA-FIS  training 
packages are planned for the remaining MS’s during the 
first half of 2015.

Month

FIS Training – Member States

Number of MS

Participants

October

FR, IE, NL, DE, PT, DK, ES

November

LT, PL, FI, EE, SE, LV, 

December

BE, UK 

TOTAL

7

6

2

15

63

40

12

115

In  addition  to  the  FIS  Training  events  in  the  MS,  EFCA 
also  hosted  two  workshops  in  Vigo,  where  further  FIS 
training was provided on the practical use of the FIS within 
JDPs. The  workshop  in  October  had  7  participants  from 
4  MS,  while  the  December  workshop  had  a  further  12 
participants from 8 MS. 

the  development, 
integration  of 

enhancement 
To 
continue 
maintenance  and 
ICT 
applications in support to JDPs control and inspection 
activities.

the  EFCA 

•	 EFCA FISHNET (EFCA-FISHNET)

The  final  phases  of  the  development  of  the  EFCA-
FISHNET  digital  communication,  collaboration  and 
coordination  platform  were  delivered  mid-2014.  The 
system  is  also  intended  as  the  single  sign-on  secured 
portal  for  accessing  the  other  operational  applications 
within  the  EFCA-FIS.  It  is  a  modular  web-based  system 
that  provides  a  virtual  office-like  environment  designed 
to  support  the  transfer  of  information  by  various  means 
such as voice, video, email and instant messaging. It also 
includes  tools  for  collaborative  document  writing  tool,  a 
calendar and a mission planner. 

44

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency•	 EFCA Vessel Monitoring System (EFCA-VMS)

EFCA  currently  uses  the  Visma  vTrack  system  as  the 
EFCA-VMS and the system has proven to be an extremely 
valuable  tool  for  planning  and  coordination,  by  providing 
a picture of the activity in the geographical areas covered 
by the relevant SCIPs. During 2014, EFCA received and 
processed  approximately  19.000.000  VMS  positions. 
Planning  has  commenced  to  integrate  the  future  EFCA-
VMS  within  the  EFCA-EA  and  to  again  maximise  the 
potential of the shared components and services.  

•	 EFCA  Electronic  Recording  and  Reporting 

System (EFCA-ERS)

The  EFCA-ERS  has  been  operational  since  early  2013 
and is primarily designed to pool and share MS ERS data. 
ERS data is now a central component in the control and 
monitoring of fishing activity and the timely access to this 
data is essential in coordinated control operations. A new 
EU-ERS  is  currently  being  designed  by  the  European 
Commission, to take account of recent changes to the CFP, 
as well as to address some shortcomings identified in the 
current ERS version 3.1. These changes will be significant 
and will have a major impact on all ERS systems across 
the EU.

•	 EFCA  Electronic  Inspection  Report  System 

(EFCA-EIR)

The new EFCA Electronic Inspection Report system was 
delivered in July 2014. The system is designed to receive 
and  parse  EIR  messages  and  allows  for  automated 
exchange  between  parties  when  so  is  required.  It  will 
also  ensure  data  quality,  integrity  and  reliability  through 
validation operations, and will provide tools to view, search 
and analyse data for statistical and reporting purposes. It 
is the first component of the EFCA-FIS to be offered as a 
‘Software as a Service’ or SaaS product (see further details 
below).  A  system  enhancement  package,  based  on  the 
requirements for additional functionalities identified during 
the testing and implementation of the initial version, was 
delivered in late 2014. The development was based on the 
user needs analysis and the result thereof is documented 

in  the  development  project  documentation.  The  EFCA 
EIR  system  was  scheduled  to  be  installed  and  available 
in  a  production  environment  during  the  third  quarter. An 
unexpected  technical  problem  with  the  creation  of  the 
production  environment  delayed  the  deployment  until  6 
November,  when  the  production  environment  was  finally 
up and running.

•	 EFCA Enterprise Architecture (EFCA-EA)

In mid-2014, work commenced on the development of a 
new EFCA Enterprise Architecture (EFCA-EA), using the 
EFCA-EIR as a base. The EFCA-EA provides the platform 
for  the  integration  of  all  the  operational  applications 
within the EFCA-FIS and also supports and simplifies the 
management of data across the applications. One of the 
principal  benefits  associated  with  the  introduction  of  the 
EFCA-EA  is  the  ability  for  all  systems  to  share  common 
services  such  as  those  required  for  data  exchange, 
reporting,  business  rules,  master  data  reference,  etc. 
The re-use of components and shared services provides 
significant savings when enhancing existing systems and 
in  particular,  when  developing  new  applications  in  the 
future. 

•	 E-learning platform

In  late  2014,  and  after  a  review  of  the  EFCA  needs  and 
benchmarking  of  which  systems  were  used  in  the  EU 
institutions  and  agencies,  the  decision  was  taken  to 
choose  Moodle  as  the  e-learning  application  to  be  used 
in EFCA. Due to conflicting priorities, the deadline for the 
acquisition of the system was delayed to 2015. The delay 
has no material effect on the overall project of providing a 
platform with content, since the work with finalising the Core 
Curricula, due to time constraints, needed to be finalised 
before beginning of the creation of the e-learning content. 
Neither does the delay have any financial consequences.

To  successfully  operate  the  EFCA  systems  for  the 
real-time  exchange  of  operational  fisheries  related 
data between MS and EFCA over the Data Exchange 
Highway (DEH)

45

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency•	

Implementation of the EFCA-FISHNET

The EFCA-FISHNET was also used on a pilot basis during 
the BFT JDP during summer 2014, and proved particularly 
successful  when  the  CCIC  was  moved  to  the  French 
Fisheries Monitoring Centre (CROSS -Etel). Furthermore, 
Fishnet  was  used  for  the  first  time  live  outside  the 
Mediterranean  JDP  by  the  end  of  2014  during  the  kick-
off  meeting  for  the  Western  Water  JDP  which  starts  in 
January  2015.  It  is  anticipated  that  the  EFCA-FISHNET 
will  become  a  key  component  when  introduced  to  the 
remaining JDPs in early 2015. 

•	

Implementation of the EFCA-EIR

The EFCA EIR is designed to exchange EIR data via the 
Data Exchange Highway (DEH). However, in the absence 
of  an  approved  XSD,  MS  were  unable  to  transmit  their 
electronic  inspection  and  surveillance  data  to  EFCA. 
In  September  2014,  the  European  Commission,  after 
consultation  with  the  Member  States  in  the  ERS  and 
Data  Management  Working  Group,  decided  on  the  use 
of  a  provisional  XSD  for  EIR,  and  it  is  now  anticipated 
that  the  exchange  of  EIR  data  via  FLUX  will  commence 
in  early  2015.  This  enables  those  MS  that  have  their 
own  EIR  systems  and  EFCA  to  exchange  EIR  data. As 
stated  above,  the  EFCA-EIR  is  now  also  available  as  a 
‘SaaS’ product, and those MS without an EIR system will 
be able to manually upload EIR XML files or to manually 
enter Inspection and Surveillance data into the EFCA-EIR 
system. This service, which is optional, also allows each 
MS to create their own EIR database storage facility within 
the  EFCA-EIR  and  enables  them  to  exchange  EIR  data 
from  within  the  system  with  other  MS,  EFCA  and  third 
parties.

•	

Implementation of the EFCA-ERS

Whilst  the  EFCA-ERS  has  been  operational  since  early 
2013, the use of the system and the pooling and exchange 
of  ERS  data  did  not  progress  as  quickly  as  anticipated. 
However, the system was used on a pilot basis during the 
BFT JDP during summer 2014. One of the major strengths 
of the system is that it is designed to allow for both PULL 
and PUSH messages, allowing interaction over the DEH 

with all MS systems regardless of their capabilities in this 
respect. It is expected that from early 2015, it will become 
operational within the WW, NS and BS JDP. A considerable 
proportion of the EFCA-FIS training package delivered to 
MS was focussed on the EFCA-ERS. 

To  monitor  and  strengthen  the  security  of  the  ICT 
environment for the exchange of data, documents and 
information in relation to JDPs

During 2014 EFCA ICT has been focussed on stabilising 
and  standardising  the  existing  server  installations  with 
a  clear  emphasis  on  security.  The  following  can  be 
highlighted. 

•	 A  standard  deployment 

image  has  been 

developed following industry’s best practices.  

•	 A  major  change  has  been  done  on  the  network 
level  by  segregating  the  networks  and  isolating 
the applications with additional separation of front 
and backend servers. 

•	 The  internal  networks  now  have  2  layers  of 

enterprise level firewalls installed. 

•	 Access  to  the  servers  is  closely  monitored  and 
access to external contractors granted on a need 
to know basis. 

•	 For  the  applications  developed  and  hosted  by 
EFCA,  four  defined  environments  have  been 
established with defined access matrix. 

•	 All access events are audited. 

•	 An  additional  protection  layer  for  all  the  hosted 
applications has been provided through the use of 
a reverse proxy from an industry leader company. 

•	 A new system to exchange encrypted large files 

was established. 

In  2014  there  has  been  an  agreement  to  use  EU-
CERT  (Computer  Emergency  Response  Team  for 
EU Institutions) extended services and as a result the 
implementation  of  a  general  logging  and  analysing 
system  has  been  performed.  The  security  of  the  in-

46

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencyhouse applications will be monitored through periodic 
penetration  scans  performed  by  EU-CERT  and  third 
party companies. 

To assist third countries in the framework of Fisheries 
Partnership  Agreements  in  the  establishment  and-
or  maintenance  of  control  system  IT  tools  and  data 
management (e.g. ERS, VMS) on EC request

EFCA  has  assisted  the  European  Commission  on  three 
missions  to  Fisheries  Partnership  Agreements.  Please 
see further details under section 1.3.4 “To provide Training 
to third countries on European Commission request”  

EFCA  assessed  the  wider  scope  for  the  exchange  of 
Electronic Inspection Report and came to the conclusion 
that the first pre-requisite for such an exchange is Member 
States  having  an  electronic  database  with  exchange 
capabilities. EFCA therefore decided to offer its EIR system 
as Software as a Service. For those Member States that 
lack that capability today, the service offers a fast track to 
the  acquisition  of  such  system  and  thereby  the  ability  to 
store and exchange electronic inspection reports within or 
outside the JDPs.

To participate and contribute to the EU fisheries expert 
group meetings and workshops

To  assess  on  a  wider  scope  for  the  exchange  of 
Electronic Inspection Report (EIR) data beyond JDPs

EFCA attended the following EU meetings and workshops 
and played an active role in each:

Main tasks

No. of 
Meetings/ 
Workshops

Expert Group Meetings 
and Workshops

ERS & Data 
Management Working 
Group

Hosted  and  led  by  the  European  Commission  (Mare  D4). 
The  group  coordinates  all  aspects  of  data  management  and 
exchange. Also known as the plenary group to which all sub-
groups report. 

Special sub-Working 
Group on FLUX-ERS 
Fishing Activity

Review of all aspects of the fishing trip domain and provided 
proposal for the design of a new ERS system to be presented 
to the plenary group.

Special sub-Working 
Group on EU-ERS v3.1 
issues

To  provide  a  post-implementation  review  of  ERS  systems  to 
identify  and  propose  solutions.  Chaired  by  the  UK.  Findings 
presented to the plenary in February 2014. 

Special sub-Working 
Group on EU Union VMS

To facilitate the participation of all MS, EU, EC and EFCA in 
the  development  of  a  new  open  source  Union  VMS  system. 
Group chaired and project managed by Sweden. 

8

6

1

3

47

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyDeliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

1.  Feasibility studies, user needs analysis, project management reports

2.  EFCA  applications  developed,  enhanced,  upgraded  and  implemented 

according to planning.

3.  E-learning platform

4.  System availability rate for the real-time exchange of data, documents and 

information in relation to JDPs

5. 

6. 

Improved operational monitoring capabilities. 

IT contract signed and implemented according to plan.

7.  Test reports

8.  Project Management Scoreboard

9.  Reports  and  statistics  on  the  Fishnet,  ERS  and  VMS  usage  and  data 

exchange metrics.

10.  Reports on the implementation of the IT Security policies and the IT Project 

Management standards, training materials

11.  Meeting documentation, minutes and reports

12.  Assessment for a wider scope of exchange of EIR data beyond JDPs.

13.    Assistance  in  the  establishment  and/or  maintenance  of  control  system 
IT tools and data management (e.g. ERS, VMS) in third countries in the 
framework of Fisheries Partnership Agreements on EC request.

ACHIEVED
Yes29

Yes

Postponed

Yes30

Yes

Yes

Yes
Partially31

Yes

Partially32

Yes

Yes

Yes (3)33

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

1.  Meeting minutes prepared and circulated along with 

all associated documents.
2.  Project Management Scorecard

3.  VMS
-  Availability rate
-  Connected MS rate

4.  ERS
-  Availability rate
-  Connected MS rate
5.  EIR 1.0 in Production Environment
6.  FISHNET (Phase 3) in Production Environment

Within 3 weeks of the meeting 
being held.
Quarterly review at IT Steering 
Committee

>99% by JDP campaign

>95%

99%
95%
Q3

Q2

Yes

Yes

99%34

99,3%

99,5%35
Postponed36
Q437

Yes

29 No feasibility study was needed during the period.
30 See KPI for VMS and ERS below. FISHNET’s availability rate was 99%.
31  The scoreboard functionality was provided through the DMN monthly reports. (3-months gap May-July). However, the projects were monitored in the EFCA IT 

steering committee and through the EFCA general Scoreboard.

32  For Security policies and Project Management standard, please see 2.2.6 IT. Training materials are made available to EFCA users and externals as appropriate 

for corporate systems and operational applications.

33 See section 1.3.4 Training and “To provide training to third countries on the European Commission´s request”.
34  Up until November 2014 the result was based on estimations and during the month of December it was measured through automatic monitoring and recording. 

The estimations were based on incidents reported by the users as well as daily checks of the systems.

35  Up until November 2014 the result was based on estimations and during the month of December it was measured through automatic monitoring and recording.       

The estimations were based on incidents reported by the users as well as daily checks of the systems.

36 Steering Group decisions for WW, BS and NS in September to start exchanging ERS data beginning January 2015.
37 Delay caused by an unexpected technical problem setting up the production environment.

48

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency1.3.4. Training

Staff

ACTIVITY

Training

CODE

Unit B

RESOURCES

Planned    1 AD + 2 AST + 1 CA

Final          1 AD + 2 AST + 1 CA

Planned: 

          € 286,000

Standard Budget

BL-B 03020

Consumed: 

          € 167,513

ABMS

Code 2.2

Consumed: 

          € 961,487

Implementation rate:            59%

Planned: 

         € 1,185,258

Introduction

In the strive towards a level playing field among Member 
States and between the operators in the fishing community 
throughout  the  EU,  a  common  Core  Curricula  for  the 
conduct of inspections is key. The Core Curricula together 
with  the  continued  support  of  training  and  exchanges  of 
best  practice  is  a  strong  driver  to  further  approach  the 
goal. 

EFCA´s  internal  Training  Steering  Committee  convened 
four times throughout the year and provided the necessary 
guidance, coordination and decisions for the tasks carried 
out during 2014. 

Objectives

In  accordance  with 
its  mandate  and  annual  work 
programme  objectives,  EFCA  has  provided  guidance  to 
Member States, facilitated the exchange of best practices 
and  further  developed  Core  Curricula  (CC)  training 
courses.

During  2014,  EFCA  has  implemented  its  roadmap  for 
training based on the CC development, training of trainers 
in the EU and third countries, provision of regional training 

Implementation rate:            81%

in the EU and exchange of best practices in a number of 
areas including IUU. Here follows a closer presentation of 
the activities in the area of training for 2014.

Main activity results

To provide engineering and methodological support in 
the field of training in particular for the development 
of the Core Curricula.

To  successfully  manage  and  monitor  the  Core 
Curricula project following agreed rules of procedure 
of the SGTEE and WGTEE, review and validation steps 
for  the  development  of  training  modules,  guidelines 
and  policy  for  the  management  of  Member  States 
comments.

To  make  available  Core  Curricula  courses  on  EFCA 
E-learning  platform  and  to  promote  the  utilisation 
of  the  Core  Curricula  modules  for  the  training  of 
Fisheries inspectors. 

•	 CC developments

To  give  effect  to  its  coordination  duties  and  legal 
obligations,  EFCA  supports  Member  States  in  designing 
a  training  programme  for  trainers  and  Union  inspectors. 
A  priority  in  the  development  of  training  programmes  is 
to create and make available reference materials for the 

49

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencytraining of the trainers of the inspectorates and of Union 
inspectors before their first deployment, the CC.
In 2014, EFCA has completed and distributed to Member 
States and the European Commission the CC course on 
“Port  Inspection”  (handbook  and  manual  for  trainers). 
This course, together with the CC course on “Inspection 
at  sea”,  has  been  made  available  in  electronic  version 
on the Core Curricula Development Platform (CCDP) and 
on the EU bookshop website38. The “Port Inspection” was 
finally published with a slight delay due to a last minute 
change of format, which will facilitate any future updates 
as approved by the SGTEE on 17 June 2014. Thereafter, 
EFCA  slightly  underestimated  the  time  required  for  the 

Publication  Office  to  proof  read  the  material  submitted. 
This delay, however, did not have any material or financial 
impact.

The  remaining  CC  courses  were  drafted  by  external 
contractors  under  the  supervision  of  EFCA.  The  drafts 
were  proof  read  and  further  elaborated  by  EFCA  and 
then  Member  States  in  the  Working  Group  for  Training 
and  Exchange  of  Experience  (WGTEE),  before  they 
were  presented  to  the  Steering  Group  on  Training  and 
Exchange of Experience (SGTEE) for approval. In 2014, 
the  following  remaining  courses  have  been  approved  by 
the SGTEE:

CC

SGTEE meeting 17 June 2014

SGTEE meeting 26 
November 2014

3rd volume
“General  Principles 
and  Specific  types  of 
inspection”

Introduction to fisheries Inspection

Union Inspectors

Identify the entity to inspect

Surveillance

Transhipment

IUU

Markets

Transport

The  course  on  “Finalising  the  inspection”  was  already 
approved in 2013 but, after the publication of “Inspection 
at Sea” (volume 1) and “Port Inspection” (volume 2), it was 
decided  by  the  SGTEE  (meeting  held  on  26  November 
2014) to group the remaining CC courses in a third volume 
“General Principles and Specific types of inspection” to be 
published during Q1 2015.

The  “Surveillance”  and  “Risk  Analysis”  courses  were 
originally  created  as  one  Core  Curricula.  The  SGTEE 
agreed  in  the  June  meeting  to  split  the  course  into  two 
courses  and  rename  the  “Risk Analysis”  to  “Identify  the 
entity to inspect”.

training programmes. Results and analysis of replies to a 
questionnaire on the implementation of the EFCA CC first 
course have been presented during this workshop and the 
Administrative Board (March 2014). On 14 replies received, 
10 Member States have indicated they already use or plan 
to use CC courses developed by EFCA, 1 Member State 
replied  it  would  not  use  the  CC  courses  (subject  already 
covered in its national training material) and 3 replied that 
possible use was still to be decided. Also, SGTEE meetings 
organised  throughout  2014  have  offered  the  opportunity 
for  EFCA  to  get  updated  feedback  from  Member  States 
on progress made concerning the use of CC material and 
inclusion in their national training programme.

•	 CC implementation

•	 CCDP

Following the distribution of the CC first course “Inspection 
at  Sea”  at  the  end  of  2013,  EFCA  has  organised  a 
workshop on 26 February 2014 to provide guidance on the 
use  of  the  CC  by  Member  States  trainers,  and  to  assist 
Member States authorities to integrate this course into their 

The  Core  Curricula  Development  Platform  (CCDP)  was 
used for exchanging information and reviewing documents 
with the external experts and Member States. The project 
of a new landing page design for the CCDP was finalized 
in 2014. 

38 https://bookshop.europa.eu/

50

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency•	 E-learning platform

The e-learning platform project was initiated, but was not 
finalized in 2014 due to conflicting priorities (need to focus 
on CC courses development). Pending such development, 
the CC courses (“Inspection at Sea” and “Port Inspection”) 
have been made available on the CCDP. So as to initiate 
the  development  of  e-training  material  to  be  used  in  the 
future e-learning platform, a project of short pedagogical 
film  on  the  use  of  the  electronic  “Omega”  gauge  was 
started in 2014 using existing EFCA video material. Also, 
additional shootings were carried out in France (Fisheries 
Monitoring  Centre)  and  Belgium  (transport,  market 
and  landing  inspections),  so  as  to  illustrate  control  and 
inspection activities covered by CC courses for future use 
in the e-learning platform.

•	 E-training tools (CITRIX “GoToTraining”)

The  Citrix  “GoToTraining”  tool  was  selected  for  remote 
training  sessions  and  has  the  capability  of  sharing 
screens, interactive tests, and presentations with remotely 
located participants. A first test of CITRIX “GoToTraining” 
e-training tool was carried out on 13 November 2014 with 
SK  and  5  EFCA  officials,  and  a  second  test  was  carried 
out on 17 December 2014 with EE, HR, NL, PL, SE and 
SK, with a positive feedback from all involved.

inspection 
manuals for trainers on EC request.

training  programmes  and/or 

training 

In  2014,  EFCA  has  assisted  the  European  Commission 
so as to train officials from Cape Verde, Gabon and Ivory 
Coast  in  matters  relating  to  monitoring  and  inspection 
methodologies  in  the  framework  of  sustainable  fisheries 
partnership agreements concluded between the European 
Union  and  such  countries.  On  the  spot  training  was 
provided  with  the  assistance  of  Member  States  experts 
(Portugal in Cape Verde, Spain in Gabon, and France in 
Ivory Coast). The training schedule was agreed between 
the  third  country  and  the  European  Commission  and 
included  topics  such  as  inspection  methodologies  in  the 
field,  FMC  functions  such  as  remote  monitoring  through 
tools such as VMS and ERS as well as evidence gathering 
and other control related topics. 

To  promote  the  exchange  of  knowledge  and  best 
practice on control and inspection
To  organise  meetings  or  seminars  on 
training 
and  exchange  of  experience,  in  particular  on  the 
development  of 
the 
effectiveness of capacity building mainly focusing on 
training.

for  measuring 

indicators 

To  provide  training  to  third  countries  on  European 
Commission request
EFCA received two requests for training in third countries 
which are further explained under section 1.3.5 (Maritime 
Surveillance, Pooled Capacities and IUU). 

To assist third countries in the framework of Fisheries 
in  the  development  of 
Partnership  Agreements 

In 2014, EFCA continued to organise trainings to Member 
States  and  to  promote  “exchanges”  between  Member 
States Union inspectors in the context of JDP operations, 
both at sea and on land39 . At the end of 2014, trainings 
were  also  provided  in  relation  to  the  EFCA  Fisheries 
Information System.40

A summary table of training events organised in 2014 by 
EFCA is annexed (Annex I.6) to this report.

39 More detailed information can be found in sections 1.3.1.1-3 and 1.3.3.
40 More detailed information can be found in section 1.3.3 Data Monitoring and Networks.

51

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyDeliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

training  courses  (content, 

teaching  and 

Yes

1.  Core  Curricula 
learning aids).

2.  Training modules 

3.  Training modules availability

4.  E-learning platform

5.  Training to third countries on EC request

6.  Meeting documentation, minutes and reports.

7.  Assistance  to  third  countries  in  the  framework  of  Fisheries 
Partnership  Agreements  in  the  development  of  inspection 
training  programmes  and/or  training  manuals  for  trainers  on 
EC request.

Yes

Yes41

Postponed42

Yes (3)

Yes

Yes (3)

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS43

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

5.  CCDP platform availability rate

5.  E-Learning 1.0 in production environment

5.  Courses Published:

- 

- 

Landing inspection46

Finalising the inspection

4. Course approved by Steering Group
- Surveillance and Risk Analysis48

5.  CC courses implemented

>99%

Q4

Q1

Q1

Q4

36% of training courses 
organised by academies 
are supported by the CC 
modules

>99%44

Postponed45

Q3 Delayed

Postponed47

Yes

Yes

41 Training modules are included in the training courses.
42 See section 1.3.3 Data Monitoring and Networks
43 KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.
44 This was based on an estimation based on the feedback from end users. No reports of system being unavailable was received nor found by EFCA.
45 See section 1.3.3 Data Monitoring and Networks.
46 Renamed to Port Inspection
47 Decided by STGEE to publish together with remaining CC courses in Q1 2015.

52

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency1.3.5.  Maritime Surveillance, Pooled Capacities and IUU

Maritime Surveillance, Pooled Capacities and IUU

ACTIVITY

Staff

CODE

Unit B

RESOURCES

Planned                    3 AST

Final                         3 AST

Planned: 

 € 230,791

Standard Budget

BL-B03030

Consumed: 

 € 140,270

ABMS

Code 2.3

Consumed: 

 € 776,950

Implementation rate:   85%

Implementation rate:   61%

Planned: 

 € 917,898

Introduction

In  the  domain  of  Maritime  Surveillance  there  is  a  need 
to  react  in  a  cost  efficient  way  to  new  technologies  that 
may  be  used  in  the  area  of  fisheries  control.  EFCA  has 
contributed to that need by assuming the expert role and 
given input into various research projects under FP7 and 
Horizon 2020 as well as completing a desk study on the 
possible  use  of  Remotely  Piloted Aircrafts  in  the  field  of 
fisheries monitoring and control.

In  the  domain  of  contributing  to  the  effective  application 
of  the  rules  of  the  IUU  Regulation,  EFCA  has  worked  to 
create a common understanding on the risks in the area 
of  import  and  export  of  fisheries  products  to  and  from 
the  European  Union.  This  is  an  essential  step  towards 
risk  mitigation  and  towards  an  effective  control  obtained 
by  focusing  the  control  resources  to  areas  with  specific 
problems.  This  has  been  accomplished  by  conducting 
workshops  and  seminars  where  Member  States  have 
raised  topics  of  concern  for  discussion  in  the  group  and 
exchanged  experience  for  the  benefit  of  all  participants. 
Equally  important  as  for  the  European  Union  to  have 

uniform and effective control of the imports is it to ensure 
that  there  is  a  good  control  system  in  place  in  the  third 
country  of  origin.  To  that  end,  EFCA  has  upon  request 
of  the  European  Commission  conducted  training  in  the 
area of fisheries control as well as assisted the European 
Commission in evaluation missions to third countries.

Objectives

In 2014, EFCA contributed to the implementation of the EU 
Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) and the CFP, cooperating 
in  the  maritime  affairs  domain  with  Member  States,  the 
European  Commission,  relevant  EU  Agencies  and 
external bodies. In addition, EFCA further developed and 
promoted the better usage of external information sources 
not readily available for fisheries control purposes in order 
to improve monitoring and risk analysis at EU level. 

Furthermore, in 2014, EFCA has continued to support the 
Member  States  and  the  European  Commission  in  order 
to ensure uniform and effective application of the rules of 
Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 of 29 September 
2008 establishing a Community system to prevent, deter 
and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing .

48 Split into two courses and renamed after SGTEE decision.
49 OJ of the European Union L 286, 29.10.2008, p.1.

53

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyMain activity results

To ensure the publication of the list of Union inspectors 
on the EFCA website and the timely issuing of Union 
inspectors identification documents. 

EFCA is the designated body to publish the list of Union 
inspectors  on  its  website  and  to  issue  Union  inspectors 
identification documents (Commission Decision 2008/201/
EC)  upon  request  of  Member  States  authorities  and  the 
European  Commission.  The  list  was  published  on  the 
EFCA website on 7 March 2014. Out of the total number 
of 1602 Union inspectors on the list, EFCA had requests 
for a total number of 595 cards to be issued, which were 
subsequently produced. 

To  provide  contract  management  services  for  the 
procurement of inspection tools, means and services 
upon request

No requests were made during 2014.

To  ensure  the  availability  of  an  EFCA  Operations 
Coordination Centre in line with operational and user 
requirements 

The coordination centre consists of two operation rooms 
and one coordination/meeting room. The centre has been 
used  for  the  operational  coordination  of  four  JDP’s  and 
year  round  by  the  EFCA  operational  coordination  teams 
for general coordination tasks.  4 MS (NL,PT,BE,LT) used 
the  EFCA  coordination  centre  facilities,  for  distinct  time 
periods,  to  ensure  the  CCIC  on  behalf  of  their  MS  for 
the Baltic Sea JDP (1 week), North Sea JDP (35 weeks) 
and  Western  Waters  JDP  (22  weeks).  Furthermore,  in 
the  framework  of  the  BFT  campaign,  EFCA  hosted  the 
coordination centre for the BFT Technical Joint Deployment 
Group (TJDG) from 15 May – 30 June.

To continue and further improve the cooperation with 
other EU Agencies on the achievement of an informed 
and  comprehensive  surface  operation  picture  of  the 
fishing activities

To  continue  the  development  and  testing  of  the 
MARUSRV  application  in  various  JDP  areas  and  to 
assess its added value and development potential in 
line  with  user  feedback  and  availability  of  maritime 
data.

Promoting the EU initiative towards an integrated maritime 
surveillance,  EFCA  continued  to  cooperate  with  other 
agencies and bodies active in the maritime domain. EFCA 
took the initiative to prolong the interagency cooperation 
agreement  between  EMSA  (European  Maritime  Safety 
Agency),  Frontex  and  EFCA,  that  was  signed  in  2009 
for  the  duration  of  five  years.  To  a  lesser  extent  there 
was  also  cooperation  with  other  EU  bodies  such  as  the 
European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union 
Satellite  Centre  (EUSC)  because  of  joint  participation  in 
FP7-H2020  projects  and  the  use  of  earth  observation 
products for testing purposes (EFCA MARSURV service). 

The  Marsurv  service  runs  on  the  IMDATE  platform 
which  is  developed,  maintained  and  run  at  EMSA. 
EFCA  provides  VMS  data  for  the  integrated  picture  that 
displays,  apart  from  VMS  data,  AIS,  Sat-AIS  and  LRIT, 
data providing an integrated maritime picture of fisheries 
with  related  positioning  data.  In  2014,  the  cooperation 
with  EMSA  intensified  with  regards  to  the  rollout  of  the 
new  major  update  of  the  EFCA  MARSURV  application 
which  consisted  into  establishing  two  maritime  services 
(Atlantic and Mediterranean). During the time the services 
were established, parts of the services were unavailable 
during  limited  periods  from  1  January  to  8  May,  making 
the  services  available  for  its  users  during  approximately 
90% of the year. As from 8 May, the Marsurv services have 
been available 100%. 

In  2014  EFCA  engaged  in  the  following  inter-agency 
cooperation activities:

54

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyInter-agency cooperation 2014

Remarks

Frontex

European Patrol network workshops
focusing  on  developments  in  illegal  immigration 
sea  border  surveillance  activities,  thus  allowing 
for  EFCA  to  present  its  activities  and  to  exchange 
views  on  best  practices  and  latest  technological 
developments.

EFCA attended both 2014 workshops 
Lisbon 4-5 June, Warsaw 9-10 December

Frontex joint operation, evaluation and planning 
to  coordinate  and  exchange  views 
meetings 
regarding operational cooperation in specific areas.

EFCA attended two meetings for the coordination of 
activities 
Rome 27 March, Athens 30 April

Frontex  workshop  and  demonstration  on  the 
integration and exploitation of RPAS data.

Rome 25-26 November

Training  for  Frontex  surveillance  teams  regarding 
the detection of possible fishing activity in their area 
of operation and the exchange of sighting information 
with EFCA

Eurosur  establishing 
Surveillance System (Reg. (EU) No 1052/201350)

the  European  Border 

EFCA  provided  3  briefing/training  sessions  (28 
February,  17  July,  4  November)  through  video 
conferencing

Preparation  of  a  Service  level  agreement  for  the 
exchange  of  VMS  information  via  the  Integrated 
Maritime Data Environment 

EMSA

EFCA MARSURV Service is the integrated maritime 
service  application  (IMDatE)  developed  by  EMSA 
in  close  cooperation  with  EFCA  for  the  fusion  and 
correlation of fisheries specific maritime information. 
EFCA  is  developing  and  providing  vessel  register 
information and vessel behaviour parameters.

IMDatE  meetings  in  the  margin  of  the  EFCA 
MARSURV Service development

To date there are more than 50 users in 12 Member 
States and EFCA. A Technical User Group meeting 
was organized (Vigo 12 March) to collect feedback 
and user experience from MS users.

EFCA participated in the following meetings;
-4th  EMSA-ESA  SAT-AIS  meeting  (Lisbon  21 
February)
-4th IMDatE User Consultation (Lisbon 30 October)

EMSA/Frontex/ESA

CYRIS  (Interagency  RPAS  Integrated  Services) 
a  proposed  project  to  investigate  how  RPAS  can 
improve the surveillance and detection capabilities.

EFCA participated in the project initiation meeting in 
Noordwijk 7 November 

50 OJ of the European Union L 295 of 6.11.2013, p. 11.

55

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyJRC (Copernicus project)

Copernicus,  previously  known  as  GMES,  is  a 
European initiative aiming at providing Europe with 
a  continuous,  independent  and  reliable  access  to 
observation data and information.

the 

requirements 

At  the  request  of  the  Joint  Research  Centre  (JRC) 
EFCA provided extensive input for the identification 
for  Copernicus  Maritime 
of 
Surveillance Services for Fisheries control in support 
of 
the  ad-hoc  Working-Group  on  Copernicus-
Security.

To  contribute  to  the  development  of  the  Common 
Information Sharing Environment (CISE) and Maritime 
Surveillance associated projects 

interlinking all User Communities, both civilian and military, 
in  the  maritime  domain.  EFCA  is  a  full  member  of  the 
Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of the CISE and as such 
contributes significantly to the development of the CISE. 

The  CISE  roadmap,  will  lead  to  the  creation  of  a 
decentralised  maritime  information  exchange  system, 

Activity

Detail

EFCA attended TAG Meetings and provided expertise 
input to relevant reports and working documents.

-TAG 18 Brussels, 26 March
-TAG 19 Brussels, 1 October

FP7-H2020

In  2014  EFCA  continued  to  provide  expertise  regarding 
fisheries control and fishing vessel behaviour in support of 

selected innovative Maritime Surveillance FP 7 projects (in 
finalisation phase) and H2020 projects (in initiation phase). 

Projects

Remarks

FP7  -  NEREIDS  aimed  at  improving  space-based 
maritime surveillance techniques in order to support 
activities in the domain of fisheries control.

EFCA was member of the user validation board and 
provided extensive input on user requirements and 
evaluation  of  test  results.  EFCA  participated  to  the 
Nereids Second User Group meeting (on  28 April, 
Barcelona)

H2020  EU  bodies  as  well  as  project  consortia   
contacted EFCA requesting input for the drafting of 
project proposals.

EFCA provided input and expressed interest for the 
following project proposals: SARAOS, ESA ARTES 
20 DeSIRE 2, VEOS

•	 Report on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems 
A desk study was completed on the possible use of Remotely 
Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in fisheries management. 
The  study  was  distributed  to  the Administrative  Board  in 
October 2014. A few potential uses were highlighted such 
as  vessel  and  detection  and  identification,  measuring 
of  static  gear,  monitoring  of  discarding/high  grading 
practices,  monitoring  of  closed  areas,  to  mention  a  few. 

Other highlighted areas that would need attention such as 
under which conditions RPAS could operate and the need 
of an initial evaluation of appropriate equipment as well as 
the  need  of  a  cost  benefit  analyses  were  identified. The 
rather  uncertain  legal  context  for  the  operation  of  RPAS 
today  will  also  need  further  analysis.  In  the  context  of 
RPAS, EFCA participated in a meeting via VC hosted by 
DG Mare on 4 September and also attended two further 

56

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencymeetings which are disclosed in the table of “Inter-agency 
cooperation 2014” above.

Assistance  to  the  European  Commission  the  tasks 
transferred  under  Commission  Decision  2009/988/
EU, including audits and evaluation missions to third 
countries (on request of the European Commission)

The support by EFCA has been organised in the fulfilment 
of  the  tasks  transferred  to  EFCA  under  Commission 

Decision 2009/988/EU of 18 December 2009, in particular 
evaluation  and  dialogue  missions  to  third  countries.  In 
2014, EFCA has participated and supported the European 
Commission  in  5  evaluation  and/or  dialogue  missions  to 
the following 8 third countries:

Third countries

Mission dates

Ecuador

28 January to 7 February

Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu

9 to 21 February

Cape Verde

South Korea, Philippines

Thailand

3 to 8 March

1 to 12 June

8 to 9 October

In addition, EFCA has supported the European Commission 
by  analysing  approximately  12  000  documents  (catch 
certificates  and  other  support  documents  received  from 
the  European  Commission)  for  the  preparation  of  the 
mission to Micronesia and Marshall Islands (September). 
As  regards  other 
to  EFCA  under 
tasks  delegated 
Commission  Decision  2009/988/EU,  no  further  requests 
have been received in 2014.

To  organise  Workshop  Seminars  on  IUU  for  MS 
competent  authorities  and  third  Countries  if  so 
requested by the European Commission

a)  Workshops and seminars for Member States

In  accordance  with  the  planning  presented  by  EFCA  at 
its  IUU  plenary  seminar  (Vigo,  on  12  and  13  November 
2013), four regional IUU workshops were held in 2014 (see 
summary table on EFCA training activities in Annex I.6). The 
main  aim  of  these  workshops  was  to  facilitate  exchange 
of  experiences  between  Member  States.  Specific  training 
topics covered by EFCA in 2014 were defined by Member 
States  and  EFCA  and  covered  RFMOs  rules,  practical 

demonstration of web information tools, and verification of 
catch certificates and accompanying documents. In total, 47 
participants from 19 Member States were present at these 
workshops. The 44 received evaluations rated the overall 
quality of the events with 35 “very good” and 9 “good”.

Complementary  to  the  regional  IUU  workshops,  an  IUU 
plenary seminar for all Member States took place in Vigo on 
4 and 5 November 2014. 37 participants from 21 Member 
States were present. The 35 evaluations received rated the 
overall quality of the event with “very good” or “good”. This 
positive feedback is the result of the practical “hands-on” 
approach for workshops and seminars, where priority was 
given to group exercises and exchange of experiences.

A  risk  analysis  methodology  project  was  initiated  and 
discussed  during  the  workshops  which  aim  is  to  assist 
Member  States  to  apply  a  basic  uniform  view  of  the 
challenges  and  to  focus  the  resources  on  the  problem 
for 
consignments 
fisheries products under the IUU Regulation. The process 
will be completed during 2015.

the  catch  certification  schema 

in 

57

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencyb)  Workshops and seminars for third countries (on 

European Commission request)

the  positive 

feedback  received 

the 
Following 
Philippines event in July 2013, two further capacity building 
missions on IUU have taken place in Curacao in January 
2014 and in South Korea in October 2014 on request from 
the European Commission. The technical assistance from 

from 

EFCA  was  in  particular  provided  in  the  areas  of  catch 
certificates validation, inspection methodologies, setting up 
of a Fisheries Monitoring Centre (FMC), risk assessment 
procedures, and use of remote control technologies.

To  provide  support  to  training  actions  and  national 
seminars on IUU at the request or MS

No such requests were made.

Deliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

1.  Up to date list of Union Inspectors on the EFCA Website

2.  Supporting  documentation,  expertise  and 

feedback 

to 

management regarding development of maritime projects

3.  Active  participation  and  expert  input  in  the  CISE  project, 

attendance to TAG and associated project meetings.

4.  User  defined  applications  “Marsurv-3”  for  the  provision  of 
the  integrated  maritime  awareness  picture  during  EFCA 
coordination activities.

5.  Effective information sharing and exchange of best practices in 
the framework of IMP and inter agency cooperation. Attendance 
to inter agency maritime workshops and seminars.

6.  A  functional  EFCA  coordination  centre,  providing  access  to 
maritime information systems and applications, in line with the 
operational and user requirements.

7.  Meeting documents and minutes. 

8.  Workshop  seminars  for  Member  States’  IUU  competent 

authorities 

9.  Participation  in  Member  States’  national  IUU  seminars  on 

request

10.  Reports  on  the  implementation  of  agency  activities  related  to 

IUU

11.  IUU training seminars for third countries experts on request of 

the European Commission

12.  Mission preparation, on the spot visits and reports on audits on 

evaluation missions in third countries.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes51

Yes

Yes

Yes (5) 

N/A52

N/A53

Yes (2)

Yes

51 See table “Inter-agency cooperation 2104” in section 1.3.5.
52 No requests were made.
53 No support was requested by the Commission. Please see section 1.3.5 “Assistance to the European Commission …”.

58

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyKEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

ID cards issued for new Union Inspectors

MARSURV-3 application available and effectively used 
during EFCA coordination activities

100% of Union inspectors 
deployed are provided 
with a card

100%

>95% availability rate

91%

Additional positions 
(number and %)

± 60,000,000 i.e. 
78% of all positions 
received comes from 
sources other than 
VMS.

User evaluation on availability of Maritime applications 
and tools at EFCA Operations coordination centre

Participation 
meetings (CISE)

to  Technical  Advisory  Group  (TAG) 

Satisfactory rate >75%

80%54 

Attendance rate >90%

100%

IUU workshops and seminars satisfaction rate55

>75%

90%

Multiannual index to be used as a tendency for compliance evaluation purposes

IUU workshops and seminars; Number of participants

5 seminars/ 
84 participants

Number of evaluation missions, dialogue missions, and follow-up missions to third 
countries.

5 missions  
(7 countries)

Number of catch certificates and processing statements analysed and processed

1,632 catch 
documents and 
approx. 10,000 
accompanying 
documents.

Number of files and reports produced within 3 weeks of the completion of the mission

5

54  This value is based on user´s general feedback. EFCA has used no specific method for measuring the satisfaction rate. The satisfaction rate was approximately 

60% in the first two quarters of the year and has steadily improved to be above 80% in the late part of the year.

55  KPIs and targets included under Annex 2 of the AWP 2014: “Key Performance indicators and targets contributing to the implementation of the training road map”.

59

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyPart II - Governance and horizontal support

Governance and Representation

ABMS Code 3

Administrative Expenditure

ABMS

CODE

Code 3

BUDGET

Planned 

 € 856,504

Consumed 

 € 855,279

Implementation rate: 100%

2.1. Governance and representation

2.1.1. Administrative Board

Administrative Board

60

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyACTIVITY

BUDGET BL A02500

Administrative Board

Planned 

Consumed 

   € 50,000

   € 41,650

Implementation rate:                    83%

Introduction

The Administrative Board is the governing and controlling 
body of EFCA. It is composed of six members representing 
the  European  Commission  and  one  representative  per 
Member State. 

After the sad passing  away of Mr Jörgen  Holmquist,  the 
Office  of  the  Chair  fell  vacant  on  28  March  2014.    The 
Administrative  Board  elected  Mr  Reinhard  Priebe  as 
Chair  of  the  EFCA Administrative  Board  with  effect  from 
17 October 2014 at its 21st meeting on 17 October 2014. 
The Deputy Chair is Mr Dario Cau who acted with great 
dedication  as  acting  Chair  between  29  March  and  16 
October 2014.

Objective

The  forefront  objective  of  the Administrative  Board  is  to 
ensure the correct and effective functioning of the Agency.

Main activity results

In  2014,  two  meetings  of  the Administrative  Board  were 
held in Vigo; the 20th meeting of the Administrative Board 
was held on 13 March and the 21st meeting on 17 October. 

At  its  20th  meeting,  the  Administrative  Board  adopted, 
amongst  other,  the  Multiannual  Staff  Policy  Plan  for 
2015-2016,  the  Draft  Budget  for  2015  and  the  Annual 
Report  2013,  endorsed  the  Focus  Group  project  on 
compliance with the requirements for accurate recording 
of  discards  and  took  note  of  the  Provisional  Multiannual 
work  programme  for  years  2015-2019  and Annual  work 

programme for year 2015, and renewed the term of office 
of  the  Chair  and  Deputy  Chair  of  EFCA’s Administrative 
Board. The Board also welcomed the presentation of the 
European Commission on the EMFF: Joint purchase and/
or chartering of control means by Member States.

At  its  21st meeting,  the Administrative  Board  elected  the 
new  Chair  and  adopted,  inter  alia,  the  Multiannual  work 
programme of EFCA for years 2015-2019 and the Annual 
work programme for year 2015 together with the Budget 
of EFCA for year 2015, the Policy on the prevention and 
management  of  conflicts  of  interest  (the  Policy  and  the 
declarations  of  interest  are  available  at  EFCA’s  website) 
and  the  anti-fraud  strategy.  The  Administrative  Board 
endorsed  the  work  done  by  the  Administrative  Board 
Focus  Group  on  Compliance  evaluation,  confirmed  the 
establishment  of  the  Internal  Audit  Capability  (IAC)  at 
EFCA  and  welcomed  the  presentation  by  the  European 
Commission on the EFCA assistance within the Fisheries 
Partnership Agreements. 

With reference to the written procedures, it is noteworthy 
to mention the new approach on the Administrative Board 
assessment and analysis of the Annual report 2013. The 
written procedure was launched on 22 July and adopted 
on 5 September.

A list with all the Administrative Board decisions adopted 
during 2014 is provided under Annex VII.1.

Expenses in this Budget line relate to the reimbursement 
of the Administrative Board representatives attending the 
Administrative Board meetings. This type of cost is subject 
to seasonal variability.

61

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyDeliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

1.  Agency Administrative Board Decisions

2.  Agency Multiannual work programme

3.  Annual work programme and Annual Report

4.  Adoption of the Budget

5.  Adoption of the Accounts

6.  Adoption of the Multiannual Staff Policy Plan

7.  Endorsement and/or support of the activities carried out by the 

Agency in the development of its mission

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

1.  Number of Administrative Board meeting 

2.  Preparation  and  notification  of  the  Board 

decisions in due course

3.  Preparation  and  notification  of  the  Board 
Agency  Multiannual  work  programme, Annual 
work  programme  and  Annual  Report  in  due 
course

4.  Preparation,  adoption    and  notification  of 

Budget and the Accounts in due course

5.  Preparation,  adoption    and  notification  of 
Multiannual Staff Policy Plan in due course

6.  Preparation of briefings and/or notes addressed 

to the Administrative Board

2

100%

2

100%

100%

90%56

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

56T he  distribution  key  is  as  follows:  The  MWP&AWP  50%  and AR  50%  (split  as  follows:  performance  of  the  duties  (10%),  financial  (10%)  and  management 

information (10%), results of the operations (10%) and analysis and assessment of the AB (10%).

62

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency2.1.2  Advisory Board

ACTIVITY

Advisory Board

STANDARD BUDGET 
 BL A02501

Planned 

Consumed 

€ 6,000

€ 5,931

Implementation rate:                     99%

Introduction

Main activity results

The  Advisory  Board  is  composed  of  one  representative 
of  each  Advisory  Council  (AC)  and  was  established  in 
the  Agency  founding  regulation  to  advise  the  Executive 
Director and to ensure close cooperation with stakeholders. 

in 

representative 

the  EFCA 
An  Advisory  Board 
Administrative Board is appointed in accordance with the 
yearly  rotation  system  agreed  by  its  members.  From  2 
March  2014  to  1  March  2015  the  LDAC  was  appointed 
representative of the Advisory Board in the Administrative 
Board, and the alternate the NSAC. The representative of 
the Advisory Board in the Administrative Board will rotate 
to the NSAC and the alternate will be the representative of 
the MEDAC on 1 March 2015.

Objective

The main objective of the Advisory Board is to advise the 
Executive  Director  and  to  ensure  close  cooperation  with 
stakeholders.

The  Advisory  Board  met  twice  in  2014  prior  to  the 
Administrative Board meetings; in Brussels on 28 February 
and  in  Vigo  17  September  2014. The  representatives  of 
the  Advisory  Board  also  participated  and  contributed  to 
the Focus Group Seminar meeting organised by EFCA in 
Dubrovnik in January 2014. 

the  Advisory  Board  meeting  organised  on 
During 
28  February, 
representatives 
the  Advisory  Council 
provided  feedback  on  the  implementation  of  the  annual 
work  programmes  (2013  and  2014),  advised  on  the 
provisional  Multiannual  work  programme  2015-2019  & 
Annual work programme 2015 of EFCA.

The  main  topics  discussed  during  the  meeting  convened 
on  17  September  2014  in  Vigo  were,  inter  alia,  the 
collaboration between the Advisory Board and the Agency, 
the  implementation  of  the Annual  work  programme  2014, 
the draft Multiannual work programme 2015-2019 & Annual 
work  programme  2015  and  the  representation  of  the 
Advisory Board in the Administrative Board of the Agency.

63

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
 
 
 
Deliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLE

Advisory Board advice regarding the Multiannual and Annual work programme of the Agency, 
containing the main concerns, needs and priorities of the stakeholders to be considered in 
the Agency field of action.

ACHIEVED

Yes

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

1. Number of Advisory Board meetings 

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

2

2

2. Advisory Board conclusions to be prepared, delivered and notified to 

100%

100%

the Advisory and Administrative Board in due course

2.1.3  Representation and Networks

ACTIVITY

STANDARD BUDGET BL A01300

Representation and networks

Consumed 

Planned 

 € 100,000

 € 73,502

Planned/consumed:                     74%

Introduction

This expenditure embeds EFCA’s participation to external 
meetings. 

Objective

Through 
cooperation,  dialogue  and 
institutional bodies, EU agencies and third parties.

this  action  EFCA  ensured  representation, 
transparency  with  other 

Main activity results

The  Advisory  Councils  represent  the  stakeholders  in 
relevant geographical areas or fisheries. There are seven 
Advisory  Councils  which  cover  different  fishing  grounds; 
both  in  EU  and  international  waters  and  those  under 
fisheries agreements: North Sea AC, Pelagic Stocks AC, 
North Western Waters AC, Baltic Sea AC, Long Distance 
AC,  South  Western  Waters  AC  and  Mediterranean  Sea 
AC. 

The ACs are an important target audience for EFCA in its 
Communication policy, as they are partners and suppliers 
of  information  to  a  range  of  fisheries  organisations  and 
other stakeholders.

During  2014,  EFCA  participated  in  meetings  of  the 
Executive Committees of the ACs, especially in those of 
the ACs affected by the Joint Deployment Plans adopted 
by EFCA. The Agency also participated in the AC Working 
Groups,  but  solely  when  issues  referring  to  EFCA 
competences were included in the agendas of the relevant 
meetings57.

EFCA attended the meetings convened by the European 
Commission,  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council 
where  its  presence  was  desirable,  required  or  in  the 
interest of the Agency. 

57 Additional information is provided under the section programmes, plans and assessment.

64

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyThree  main  events  must  be  highlighted,  namely  the 
participation  of  EFCA  in  two  Hearings  in  the  European 
Parliament  (EP)  Committee  on  Fisheries  (PECH), 
“Implementing  the  discard  ban”  on  7  April,  and  “Fight 
against  illegal  fishing  (IUU)”  on  29  September,  and 
secondly, the presentation by EFCA’s Executive Director 
in the PECH Committee on the subject of the Multiannual 
work programme 2015-2019 and Annual work programme 
2015  on  4  December. The  presentation  was  followed  by 
valuable contributions made by the MEPs who pointed out 
that the CFP reform has given more competences to EFCA 
and acknowledged the need to align the expectations in the 
CFP with the appropriate financial and human resources.  

EFCA has participated, and supported the EU delegation, 
in meetings of the RFMOs, in which JDPs are implemented: 
NAFO, NEAFC, and ICCAT. During 2014, the Agency also 
participated in the Coastguard Forum meetings.

On  horizontal  matters,  the  inter-agency  cooperation 
network coordinates the relations between Agencies, the 
European  Commission  and  the  European  Parliament. 
In  this  context,  the  Executive  Director  and  the  Head 
of  Administration  attended  the  various  meetings  held 
at  managerial  level.  Likewise,  Agency  staff  met  their 
technical  networks: 
counterparts 
Procurement  (NAPO),  Communication,  Data  protection, 

through  specific 

the  European  Commission 

Legal (IALN), IT, the Performance Development Network 
(PDN) and Accounting. 
Noteworthy  is  the  contribution  of  EFCA  to  the  roadmap 
following 
proposed  by 
the  tripartite  approach  on  EU  decentralised  agencies 
endorsed  by  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council  and 
the  European  Commission  in  July  2012.  EFCA  has 
contributed  to  the  roadmap  implementation  through  the 
EU Agencies  Performance  Development  Network  to  find 
synergies and to optimise the available resources. 

Within  the  EU Agencies  PDN  the  work  developed,  inter 
alia,  in  the  following  fields  has  been  especially  relevant: 
a common template gathering common elements for the 
multiannual and annual work programme of the agencies, 
thus  a  programming  document  across  agencies,  the 
report  on  performance  indicators  in  the  EU  agencies, 
a  consolidated  annual  activity  report  template  and  the 
guiding principles for agencies external evaluations. 

The  Agency  was  also  represented  on  the  Board  of  the 
Translation Centre in Luxembourg during two meetings in 
2014.

Last  but  not  least  EFCA  has  notably  rationalised  the 
number  of  meetings  requiring  participation  which  has 
been translated in a decrease of the expenditure.

Deliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

ACHIEVED

1.  Attendance to relevant meetings for the Agency

2.  Contribution to drafting positions in the field of the inter-agency 

working group

3.  Presentations and briefings delivered in the different meetings

4.  Briefings  and  documents  issued  to  inform  the  institutional 

bodies and third parties

Yes 

Yes

Yes

Yes

65

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyKEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

1.  Rate of participation on the Heads of 
Agencies and Heads of Administration 

2 meetings

2.  Number  of  debriefings/  informative 
notes  provided  to  the  Administrative 
Board

Twice a year under the 
Information from the ED 
provided to the Board during the 
Board meetings

2

Yes

2.1.4  Communication

Communication

66

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyACTIVITY

STANDARD BUDGET BL A02700

STAFF

Planned 

  € 55,000

Planned        1 AD

Communication

Consumed 

  € 37,867

Implementation rate:       69%

Final             1 AD

Introduction

The Communication strategy plan warrants that the EFCA 
activities are well known for the partners and stakeholders 
working with the Agency as well as for its target audiences.

Objective

The  objective  is  to  support  the  Communication  strategy 
defined  by  the  European  Commission  in  the  field  of  the 
Common  Fisheries  Policy,  and  concretely,  in  Control, 
contribute to build a culture of compliance, have a fluent 
flow of information with the institutional actors and foster 
the European Union values.

Main activity results

Once again, the Agency contributed to the Communication 
Strategy defined by the European Commission in the field 
of  the  Common  Fisheries  Policy  and  in  particular  in  the 
area of Control and Enforcement by attending the Seafood 
Exposition  at  the  European  Commission  stand,  keeping 
its  website  up  to  date  with  information,  and  producing 
publications  for  the  general  public  such  as  the  MWP 
2014-2018, the Annual Report 2013 and a new brochure. 
In  2014,  a  new  corporate  video  of  the  EFCA  and  a  new 
B  roll  of  images  were  produced  with  the  cooperation  of 
the Irish authorities. Furthermore, several communication 
materials were produced.

With  a  view  to  promote  the  values  of  the  European  Union 
locally,  EFCA  organised  the  Europe  Day  on  its  premises. 
The  event  was  attended  by  prominent  regional  and  local 
authorities as well as other fisheries stakeholders and was 
widely  covered  in  the  regional  press.  Furthermore,  during 

the  Spanish  government 

2014 bilateral meeting were organised with the mayor of Vigo, 
Mr Abel Caballero, the President of the Galician government, 
Mr Alberto Nuñez Feijoo and the newly appointed Delegate 
in  Galicia,  Mr  Santiago 
of 
Villanueva, for updating about EFCA´s activities. Other visits 
from stakeholders were received in EFCA premises, such as 
students from the Master on Fisheries management from the 
University of Alicante or representatives of the development 
NGO  Amigos  da  Terra.  Regarding  institutional  relations, 
the  EFCA  organized  a  side  event  and  presentation  on  23 
September  2014  to  the  participants  at  the  NAFO  Annual 
meeting which was held in Vigo and invited Mr Fred Kingston, 
NAFO Executive Secretary, to EFCA.

the  building  of 

During 2014, the biggest development in Communication 
the  capacity  of  online 
terms  was 
communication. The  new  intranet  of  the  EFCA  based  on 
Sharepoint was finally launched during the month of August 
and has meant a leap forward in terms of enhancing internal 
communication, sharing easily documents, information and 
events,  streamlining  working  processes,  enabling  project 
management within the EFCA and fostering transparency. 
Furthermore,  a  new  website  for  the  EFCA  is  being 
developed;  the  deployment  of  the  system  has  already 
taken place in 2014 and will go live in 2015.

Communication  with  the  media  mainly  revolved  around 
the  conclusions  of  the  Administrative  Board  meetings, 
the  results  of  the  seminar  on  coordination  of  new  CFP 
provisions  in  Dubrovnik  and  the  workshop  on  control  of 
the bluefin tuna with EU and non EU countries organized 
by the EFCA.

The Communication projects planned were all carried out; 
savings were done in the financial quotes.

67

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyDeliverables and key performance indicators in accordance with the Annual work programme 2014:

DELIVERABLES

1.  Stakeholders

Communication on the seminars/events organised with RACs

ACHIEVED

Yes

Stakeholders visits to the Agency

2.  General Public

New website on Agency’s work

Stand,  Agency  staff  presence,  promotional  material  at  the  Seafood 
Exposition in Brussels and the Maritime Day

Participation in EU activities on the CFP and particularly Control such 
as information seminars, press conferences or fairs

Layout  and  distribution  of  the  main  publications: Annual  Report  and 
Work Programme

Effective  Communication  tools  available  for  trainings,  visits,  fairs, 
presentations, etc.

Strong media relations on the topics covered by the Agency

Main Agency supports apply the corporate visual identity

3.  Local public

Organisation of a local event with vast institutional presence and media 
coverage

Cooperation with the EC Representation Office and EU Communication 
relays

Organisation of visits of the local stakeholders to Agency office

4. 

Institutional actors

Presentations  to  EU  stakeholders,  especially  those  involved  in  the 
JDPs

5.  EFCA staff

Holding staff meetings after the Administrative Board meetings as well 
as when there are major developments within the EFCA

Keep updated a collaborative intranet which will boost communication

Organise  social  events  that  can  favour  cross-unit  and  informal 
communication

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

68

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyKEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

1.  Number of visits to the EFCA by stakeholders

2.  Publications produced

3.  Number of visits to the EFCA website

4.  Number  of  informative  sessions  where  the 

EU/CFP is addressed with a local audience

5.  Number  of  presentations 

to 

institutional 

actors

6.  Meetings with staff when relevant

6

2

6

3

4,000 average visits per 
month

4,000 average visits 
per month

3

6

2

4

6

4

2.2. Horizontal support

2.2.1. Major events

In  2014  the  following  important  events/issues  were 
addressed:

•	 Moving 

towards  greater  efficiency 

through 
information  systems  or 
increasing  use  of 
streamlining  procedures,  in  particular  reduction 
of  ex-ante  and  more  use  of  ex-post  controls  in 
Finance;

•	 Completion  of  projects  related  to  the  revised 
Financial  Regulation  and  Staff  Regulations,  in 
particular the adoption of related rules and Data 
Protection (DP) notifications;

•	 Development  of  policies  related  to  the  Common 
approach,  in  particular  for  Conflict  of  Interest 
(CoI) Policy and Anti-fraud strategy;

•	 Establishment  of  an  updated  service 

level 
agreement    with  the  Paymasters  Office  for 
to  salaries, 
continuation  of  services  related 
missions and pensions;

•	 First use of electronic invoicing with the inception 
of  E-Prior  in  EFCA  for  DG  DIGIT  framework 
contracts;

•	 A new Intranet with a large amount of information 
related to Horizontal services became operable in 
the middle of the year.

In 2014 a first reduction of posts in line with the general 
5%  staff  reduction  foreseen  in  the  Inter-institutional 
agreement  for  decentralised  agencies  was  implemented 
through the removal of one post from administrative staff 
(Unit A). This will be followed by the removal of a second 
post, also from administrative staff in 2015, representing in 
total 4% of the TA staff. 

2.2.2 Budgetary and financial management

•	 Budget Implementation

There were €9.22 million set as 2014 contribution to 
EFCA from the total subsidy of the European Union.

EFCA  has  implemented  99.1%  (98.6%  in  2013)  of 
the commitment appropriations, and 88.4% (83.9% 
in  2013)  of  the  payments  appropriations. The  level 
of carry forward 2014-2015 has been 11% (15% in 
2013). 

69

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyBudget implementation for commitments and payments 2014

VOTED 
BUDGET 
2014

VOTED 
BUDGET 
2014
6,344,359
1,160,000

7,504,359

1,712,791

BUDGET EXECUTION

COMMITMENTS

PAYMENTS

Transferred

Appropriations 
(€)

Committed 
(€)

% 
exec

Appropriations 
(€)

Paid (€)

% 
exec

-360,233 
360,233 

5,984,126
1,520,233

5,916,889
1,505,893

99%
99%

5,984,126 5,819,393
1,520,233 1,127,505

97%
74%

0

0

7,504,359

7,422,781

99%

7,504,359 6,946,897

93%

1,712,791

1,710,333

100%

1,712,791 1,203,895

70%

937,791

-  37,200 

900,591

898,193

100%

900,591

485,650

54%

775,000

37,200 

812,200

812,140

100%

812,200

718,245

88%

TITLE

TITLE I
TITLE II
TOTAL TITLE 
I AND II
TITLE III
Capacity 
Building
Operational 
Coordination

TOTAL

9,217,150

0

9,217,150

9,133,114

99%

9,217,150 8,150,792

88%

The cancellation of payment appropriations58 in the budget 
of EFCA for 2014 is €142,576 representing 1.3 % of the 
total  payment  appropriations  of  2014.  This  amount  is 
broken down as follows:

o  Non-used  payment  appropriations  of  2014  is 

€84,036

In terms of the share of payments in compliance with the 
Financial Regulation time limits, 99.9% (95% in 2013) of 
all payments were made within the legal targets and the 
average number of days for payment in 2014 was 18 days. 
There was no interest charged by suppliers through late 
payments. 

o  Cancellation  of  payment  appropriations  carried 
over from 2013 (C8 fund source) is €58,540

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET

ACHIEVED

Execution rate commitments appropriations

As close as possible to 
100%

Execution payment appropriations

Percentage of payments done within the time limits

>=70%

>95%

99.1%

88.4%

99.9%

58  After taking into account automatic as well as non-automatic carry overs of payment appropriations from 2013 (for EFCA in 2014, fund source C8 – appropriations 

carried over automatically).

70

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency•	 Activity Based Management information

In  accordance  with  the  Activity  Based  Management 
System (ABMS) approach approved by the Administrative 
Board on 19 October 2010, the Annual Report 2014 is the 
fifth report implementing ABMS in its reporting, adding the 
total estimated direct and indirect costs for each activity. 

•	

EFCA accomplishes its mission through its two operational 
activities and one functional activity integral to its operation 
as an independent EU body:

(e.g. the budget line North and Baltic Sea is directly 
allocated to the activity North and Baltic Sea)

Indirect  cost  allocation.  The  staff  and  overhead 
expenditure  (Titles  I  and  II)  are  allocated  to  the 
different  activities  based  on  different  drivers.  The 
main driver is the dedication of staff to each activity, 
which is weighted with the average cost for AD, AST 
and  CA  posts.  EFCA  will  be  using  the  real  basic 
salary cost for each staff’s type of contract/grade in 
its activity based budgeting starting in 2016 AWP. 

o  Operational activities

-  Operational Coordination59
-  Capacity Building60

o  Functional activity

-  Governance and Representation61

EFCA  uses  the  following  allocation  methodology  for  the 
planning (AWP procedure) as well as for the implementation 
figures (AR procedure):

•	 Direct cost allocation. The operational expenditure 
(Title III) is allocated directly to one of the activities 

•	 EFCA  estimates 

its  horizontal  support  costs 
separately,  which  are  then  distributed  within  each 
of  the  activities  based  on  the  final  weight  of  each 
main  activity.  The  figures  presented  for  ABB 
(figures planned in the AWP 2014) and ABC (2014 
implementation figures) for each activity include the 
horizontal support expenditure.

the  methodology  explained  above, 

Considering 
the 
following table presents the budget (ABB) allocated to the 
activities  and  sub-activities  in  the AWP  2014,  as  well  as 
the final output of the real costs allocated to each activity 
(ABC) based on the actual budget implementation. 

59 Activity code: 1 (ABMS).
60 Activity code: 2 (ABMS).
61 Activity code: 3 (ABMS). 

71

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyActivity based budget planned and implemented in 2014

AWP 2014 – 
Planned budget 
(ABB) 

AAR 2014 – Budget 
Implementation 
(ABC)

Code

Activity/ Sub activity

€

% of 
total 

€

% of 
total 

Rate of 
implementation

1 OPERATIONAL COORDINATION

5,052,742   

55% 5,016,706   

1.1 North and Baltic Sea

1,275,502   

14% 1,206,675   

1.2 North Atlantic and WW

1,388,093   

15% 1,308,726   

1.3 Mediterranean and Black Sea

1,027,583   

11% 1,168,581   

1.4 Programmes, Plans and Assessment  1,361,565   

15% 1,332,724   

2 CAPACITY BUILDING

3,307,904   

36% 3,261,129   

2.1 Data Monitoring and Networks

1,204,748   

13% 1,522,691   

2.2 Training

1,185,258   

13%

961,487   

55%

13%

14%

13%

15%

36%

17%

11%

99%

95%

94%

114%

98%

99%

126%

81%

2.3

Maritime 
Capacities and IUU

Surveillance, 

Pooled 

917,898   

10%

776,950   

9%

85%

3

GOVERNANCE AND 
REPRESENTATION

TOTAL

856,504   

9%

855,279   

9%

100%

9,217,150   

100% 9,133,114   

100%

99%

As  shown  in  the  table  above,  and  analysing  the  main  3 
activities,  no  significant  changes  are  found  in  respect  of 
the ABB figures presented in the AWP 2014. 

In the chapter of operational coordination, from 2014 the 
previously  independent  budget  lines  for  North  Sea  and 
Baltic  Sea  on  the  one  side,  and  for  North  Atlantic  and 
Western  waters  on  the  other  side,  were  merged.  The 
synergies in the organisation of meetings and the increase 
of remote coordination and reduction of missions of EFCA 
staff  allowed  the  surplus  budget  to  be  dedicated  to  the 
implementation  of  the  landing  obligation  initiatives  by 
EFCA, and the increase in the scope of the Mediterranean 
JDP.  Figures  of  budget  for  2015  have  been  already 
adapted on the view of the 2014 experience.

In any case, in this chapter it has also to be considered that 
most of expenses relate to missions (travel) and meetings 
(experts reimbursement). These types of costs are subject 
to  high  seasonal  variability  and  a  flexible  approach,  and 
detailed follow-up is applied to ensure that all necessary 
activities  are  fulfilled  through  small  transfers  of  budget 
allocation between lines. 

In the case of Capacity Building, as shown in the standard 
presentation  of  the  budget  implementation,  decisions 
were  taken  to  transfer  budgetary  means  from  sub-
activities  2.2  (Training)  and  2.3  (Maritime  Surveillance, 
Pooled Capacities and IUU) to 2.1 (Data Monitoring and 
Networks). The surplus for 2.2 was due to the re-planning 
of  the  e-learning  project  and  in  2.3  mainly  found  in 

72

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency    
 
 
missions and meetings. The budgetary means were used 
for  the  strengthening  the  operations  in  DMN  in  order  to 
further support the development of the smart CCIC, and 
the  setting  up  of  the  foundation  for  remote  operational 
coordination.  The  means  were  used  specifically  for 
meetings  and  missions  for  the  extended  roll  out  training 

in  the  FIS,  software  development  and  maintenance, 
necessary  licenses  as  well  as  system  administration 
services for the operation of the FIS.

In accordance with the ABMS the pie chart below shows 
the distribution of the staff allocation by activity: 

Distribution of the staff allocation by activity

% of dedication of staff

10,6 %

32,4 %

Operational Coordination

Capacity Building

57,0 %

Representation

2.2.3 Human Resources (HR) management

EFCA staff

73

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency•	 Personnel Selection and Recruitment

On  31  December  2014,  the  total  number  of  EFCA  staff 
in  activity  was  56  including  52  Temporary  Agents,  and  4 
Contract Agents. There were 2 Seconded National Experts 
(total usage of SNEs in 2014 was 2.4 FTE). The new Head 
of  Unit  B  and  two  more  temporary  agents  were  recruited 
in the first half year of 2014. There were departures of one 
contract agent in September and of two temporary agents at 
the end of the year. Two selection procedures were launched 
for vacancies in Unit B, whereof one was finalised, and one 
is ongoing. The establishment plan was filled to 98% in 2014. 

Under  a  Service  Level Agreement  with  EMSA,  0.2  FTE 
was  provided  for  sharing  the  Internal  Audit  Capability. 
External personnel from a temporary employment agency 
were used for covering temporary replacements to a total 
of 3.7 FTE. Furthermore, external service providers were 
used for delivering specified structural services within the 
EFCA premises, mainly in the areas of ICT and Logistics. 
The total of this amounted to 8.4 FTE.

With  regard  to  successfully  recruiting  personnel,  the 
risk  related  to  finding  and  retaining  staff  is  not  having 

a  tangible  negative  impact,  which  is  evidenced  by  the 
high  occupation  rate  and  relatively  low  turnover  of  staff. 
One  exception  is  for  SNEs  where  it  has  been  difficult  to 
maintain the level of 4 FTE per annum, either with long or 
short-term SNEs.

•	 Organizational development and Staff structure

EFCA  adjusted  its  organization  in  four  decisions  on  its 
organizational chart done in January, February October and 
December, mainly reinforcing staffing in the area of ICT. 

The average age of staff is 46 years. As in the previous 
years  there  is  a  wide  composition  of  staff  in  regard  to 
nationalities as analysed below.

Including Seconded National Experts, nationals of 19 EU 
Member  States  were  working  at  EFCA  on  31  December 
2014. Their representation can be grouped into staff from 
Spain, Portugal and France (together 45%), from Belgium, 
Germany,  United  Kingdom  and  Italy  (together  26%)  and 
from  12  further  Member  States  (together  29%).  The 
expatriate’s quota is 81%.

EFCA Staff by nationalities (31/12/2014)

11

9

6

4
4
4

3

ES
PT
FR
BE
DE
UK
IT
EL
FI
IE
LT
SE
BG
DK
EE
HR
NL
PL
RO

2
2
2
2
2

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

0 %

5 %

10 %

15 %

20 %

74

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency•	 Gender distribution among EFCA staff

EFCA  promotes  a  policy  of  equal  treatment  and  would 
aim  to  have  an  optimal  gender  balance  among  its  staff. 
The Agency has an equal treatment statement included in 
each vacancy notice published.

EFCA  staff  (including  Seconded  National  Experts)  is 
composed of 34 male and 22 female members. There is 
a majority of male staff employed in Unit C - Operational 
Coordination. Combined with the other units, the overall 
percentage of female members of staff is 38%.

Gender distribution among EFCA staff

EFCA

Unit A – Resources

Executive
Director

71 %

2

5

Unit C – Operational Coordination

22 F 

72 %

8

3

Unit B – Capacity Building

 36 M 

TA, CA, SNE
31/12/2014

40 %

6

9

13 %

3

22

Staff of grande AD8 and  higher

25 %

4

12

•	 Personnel policies and procedures

EFCA  followed  the  reform  of  the  Staff  Regulations 
of  1  January  2014  by  adopting  and  implementing 
Commission decisions notified to the agencies. Policies on 
anti-harassment,  administrative  inquiries  and  disciplinary 
proceedings  have  been  notified  for  Data  Protection 
and  submitted  to  the  Commission  for  agreement.  In  the 
framework  of  the  adoption  of  EFCA’s  policy  on  Conflict 
of  Interest  a  handbook  for  staff  has  been  established, 
which  was  communicated  to  staff.  Specific  declarations 
of  absence  of  conflict  of  interest  have  been  requested 
from  staff  at  recruitment  and  departure.  The  new  EFCA 
intranet  platform  became  functional  in  summer  and  HR 

related information was set up on around forty webpages 
including documents, templates and forms. 

HR  Procedures  for  selection  and  recruitment  have 
been  modified  following  the  new  Article  11  of  the  Staff 
regulations on declaration of conflict of interest, and new 
standards  on  transparency  introduced  by  the  European 
Ombudsman in April. The HR procedures were audited by 
ECA mainly in the areas of remuneration and recruitment 
without observations.

The HR procedures in general were reviewed for possible 
simplification  and  adoption  of  best  practice,  and  a 

75

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
destruction of obsolete files was also performed according 
to retention policy rules. 

Commission rules. Three trainees started in October 2014 
under this scheme. 

The cooperation with the European Commission services 
and  service  providers  has  been  enhanced  based  on  the 
established  SLA  and  Framework  contracts.  In  particular, 
procedural and technical changes were followed up with 
the  Paymaster’s  Office  (PMO),  which  authorises  the 
entitlements and executes the payroll for EFCA staff. PMO 
opened for EFCA in early 2014 its new online application, 
insurance 
facilitating  reimbursements  of 
scheme. 

the  health 

•	 Appraisal and Reclassification

The  appraisal  exercise  (evaluating  2013  performance) 
was implemented under the new Implementing provisions, 
while the reclassification exercise 2014 was implemented 
under  the  existing  EFCA  rules.  Since  then,  new  rules  of 
reclassification have come into force and will be used in 
the 2015 exercise.

•	 New Traineeship scheme 

A Service Level Agreement with the Traineeship Office of 
the European Commission was concluded in 2014 in order 
to  enable  traineeships  at  EFCA  based  on  the  European 

•	 Training and Tuition

Collective  training  courses  in  topics  such  as  “Ethics 
and  Integrity”,  “Anti-harassment  awareness  sessions”, 
“Training for occasional trainers” and “Lead Auditing” were 
among  courses  organised  in  2014.    “Management  skills 
coaching” and a session on “Respect and dignity at work” 
were organised for managers. In-house training courses in 
IT and languages were also provided throughout the year. 
Some figures related to the training activities in 2014 are 
as follows:

•  Number of collective courses organised in the 

EFCA premises: 15

• Number of external training courses followed: 17

• Number of persons following language courses: 30

•  Average number of training days per staff member: 

2.4

The scheme concerning tuition provided to staff member’s 
children  in  the  Vigo  area  in  mother  tongue,  and  support 
for  English  and  Spanish  was  continued  in  2014,  with  an 
increase of requests after the summer period.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

Execution rate establishment plan

>95%

98%

2.2.4   Budget implementation tasks entrusted  

2.2.5  Procurement

to other services and entities

Based  on  a  service  level  agreement  (SLA)  with  the 
PMO,  EFCA  has  delegated  the  powers  of  determination 
of  entitlements  related  to  the  remuneration  of  its  staff 
to  PMO.  In  cooperation  with  the  PMO  services,  EFCA 
prepares and controls the processing and implements the 
final payments of the monthly payroll. A revised SLA is in 
place from 1 January 2015.

In  2014,  the  procurement  activities  focus  was  on  both 
replacing  existing  contracts,  especially  on  travel,  mobile 
phone and internet services, catering and communications. 
In  addition,  in  order  to  face  upcoming  new  operational 
needs, a large open call for ICT development was launched. 
At  the  same  time,  several  needs  have  been  addressed 
with  the  use  of  existing  contracts,  either  EFCA’s  own  or 
those of the European Commission, especially DG DIGIT.

76

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyIn the interest to optimise the available resources, EFCA 
joined  4  inter-institutional  procurement  procedures  by 
DG  HR,  as  well  as  4  inter-institutional  procurement 
procedures  by  DG  DIGIT.  EFCA  also  joined  and  started 
using a DG BUDG contract for independent audit services 
to contract an independent external auditor in accordance 
with article107 of EFCA’s Financial Regulation.

Further information on procurement is available in Annex 
VII.2.

The  non-critical  risk  of  a  low  response  rate/lack  of 
acceptable  bids  for  certain  specific  tender  procedures 
which  might  affect  the  Agency’s  capacity  to  reach  its 
objectives did not materialise in 2014.

In  the  same  line,  a  Memorandum  of  Understanding  has 
been  signed  with  DG  DIGIT  for  the  quality  and  security 
requirements  related  to  the  connection  to  the TESTA-ng 
network set.

The  procurement  plan  was  updated  four  times  in  2014. 
In  the  end,  two  planned  procurement  procedures  (open 
calls)  were  moved  to  2015.  Four  other  procedures  were 
not  launched,  as  the  needs  could  be  covered  by  other 
contracts.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

TARGET

ACHIEVED

Procurement procedures launched according to procurement 
plan

80 %

75 %

2.2.6 IT

In 2014, EFCA continued and finalised the restructure of 
ICT. All ICT projects were monitored and decisions made in 
the ICT Steering Committee, who met four times over the 
year, to ensure alignment with business needs. Following 
best practices from the IT industry and, as far as possible, 
following  industry  standards  such  as  COBIT  and  ITIL 
where applicable, EFCA has been focused on streamlining 
and  standardizing  its  tasks  with  a  clear  emphasis  on 
security. The basic principle in increasing security was the 
segregation of the networks and isolating the applications 
with  additional  separation  of  front  and  backend  servers. 
The  internal  networks  now  have  2  layers  of  firewalls 
installed.  Furthermore,  the  applications  developed  and 
hosted by EFCA have 4 defined environments with defined 
access matrix to cater for all development and deployment 
stages  of  integration,  acceptance,  test  and  production. 
All access events are audited and administration access 
management  is  controlled  and  monitored  with  enhanced 
traceability.  The  segregation  also  continued  in  access 
control  management  and  user  management,  thus  by 
separating  roles  and  closely  monitoring  them,  the  risk 
of  security  issues  was  minimised.  Due  to  the  necessary 
prioritisation of tasks, the establishment of an IT security 

plan will be integrated in the creation of the IT Master Plan 
envisioned for 2015.
In  a  more  practical  level,  all  Microsoft  based  Operating 
Systems  were  upgraded.  The  use  of  standardized 
infrastructure  and  more  secure  image  templates  have 
resulted in that 80% of the servers have been rebuilt using 
templates. Regular patch management was scheduled and 
where applicable, performed weekly. Auditing software has 
been  purchased  to  record  all  changes  in  infrastructure, 
resulting in that permissions and reports are checked daily. 
New  applications  have  been  acquired  and  installed  for 
secure data exchange of large files with 256 bit encryption 
and authentication, where all actions are logged and audited.

In  addition,  the  client  endpoints  (i.e.  workstations  and 
laptops)  have  all  been  redesigned  and  reimaged.  New 
policies, along with regular patch and account monitoring 
and  a  change  of  antivirus  software  solution  with  firewall 
have all been implemented.

In  2014,  in  the  area  of  IT,  EFCA  has  enhanced  the 
collaboration with other EU bodies such as with EU-CERT 
as  mentioned  earlier  in  the  document  (Section  1.3.3  - 
Data Monitoring and Networks) and participation in ICTAC 
Meetings62.  EFCA  provided  backup  access  to  S-TESTA 
network for EMSA.

62  The ICTAC Network was established in 2003 to facilitate knowledge sharing and cooperation between the IT Managers of all the Agencies of the European 

Institutions.

77

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencySummarised achievements during 2014 were:

•	 Deployment of mail and web filtering;

•	  Two new redundant internet connections of 100mbps 

each were installed;

•	 Fishnet blade servers were put in production;

•	  Fully  redundant  UPS  for  the  server  room  were 

installed;

•	 Virtualisation of VMS servers was completed;

•	 Migration to new mail server; 

•	 Upgrade of virtualisation platform;

•	 Deployment of enterprise level application firewall;

•	 Deployment of laptops with encrypted hard disks;

•	 100 virtual servers installed and maintained;

•	 Decommission of 7 old physical servers;

•	  Server and application monitoring system pilot project 

was launched;

•	  Deployment  of  standard  image  to  all  desktops  and 

laptops.

•	  Deployment of redundant enterprise level firewalls in 

perimeter;

•	  Deployment  of  redundant  enterprise  level  firewalls 

internally;

•	 Deployment of redundant enterprise level VPN;

The  EFCA  IT  Service  Desk  assisted  the  organisation  in 
any  support  related  to  the  functioning  of  and  running  of 
the  corporate  and  channelled  reported  problems  on  the 
operational  systems.  During  2014,  the  Service  Desk 
received 2,908 requests for support whereof 2,778 were 
handled and solved within 48 hours. 

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

TARGET 

ACHIEVED

Corporate Application availability rate

Operational Applications availability rate

>=95%

>= 95%

99%63

Yes 64

2.2.7 Facilities

A new energy management contract has been concluded 
allowing  close  monitoring  of  electricity  consumption. 
Conclusions on the consumption monitoring will be drawn 
in March 2015.

Power supply redundancy for the server’s room and for the 
whole building has been reviewed. A UPS (uninterrupted 
power  supply)  system  has  been  upgraded  and  power 
redundancy  for  servers  is  now  close  to  100%.  The  new 
UPS installation is scalable to allow future upgrade of the 
IT infrastructure.

During  2014  new  contracts  for  Security,  Reception  and 
Auxiliary  services;  Catering  services;  Maintenance  of 
Technical Installations were signed.

In December 2014, a failure in the CCTV recording system 
was identified. 
Due to this the CCTV System has been updated in order 
to allow a regular check on the functioning of the system. 
This will allow a rapid identification of any problem and fast 
intervention in case of a need.

2.2.8  Data protection and access to documents

•	 Data protection

EFCA  complies  with  the  applicable  legislation  on  the 
protection  of  personal  data  processed  by  the  Agency 
(Regulation  (EC)  No  45/200165).  In  2014,  the  Agency 
continued  to  submit  notifications  to  its  internal  register 
of operations that involve processing of personal data in 
the areas of HR and IUU. New operations of a sensitive 
nature were also notified to the European Data Protection 
Supervisor for prior checking, when a situation required it. 

63 The result was based on estimations. These were based on incidents reported by the users as well as daily checks of the systems.
64  The result was based on estimations. These were based on incidents reported by the users as well as daily checks of the systems. VMS, ERS, CCDP 99% and 

Marsurv 91%.

65 OJ of the European Union L 8 of 12.1.2001, p. 1.

78

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency  
Furthermore,  EFCA’s  Data  Protection  Officer  organised 
internal  training  sessions,  in  the  interest  of  further 
enhancing  the  EFCA  culture  of  respect  of  personal  data 
protection rules. The training focussed on the importance 
of data protection and practical aspects, as the notification 
procedure.

•	 Access to documents

As regards the implementation of the applicable legislation 
on access to documents (Regulation (EC) No 1049/200166), 
in 2014, no specific request to documents was made. 

66 OJ of the European Union L 145 of 31.5.2001, p. 43.

79

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
Part III. Building Blocks of Assurance

3.1. Assessment by management

•	 Mapping EFCA’s vision

Before the 2013 yearend, EFCA management has initiated 
the process of re-defining and formalising its strategy by 
looking with ‘fresh eyes’ at its Foundation Regulation and 
re-thinking its business model. This assessment exercise 
aimed  to  find  a  proper  answer  to  the  following  two  key 
questions:

how the Agency can create even more value for 
its shareholders and therefore in which directions 
to enhance its operations 

-    to  make  the  best  of  the  skills,  abilities  and 
commitment of its own staff 
-  to evolve in time from simple towards complex by 
assessing the effort versus impact.

•	 Consolidating EFCA’s Assurance

In parallel with the efforts summarised above, EFCA has 
run another assessment process focused on the improved 
of  its  Assurance  Landscape.    The  objectives  were  as 
follows:

-to perform an inventory of all existing elements which are 
providing  assurance  to  the  management  not  only  in  the 
context  of  the Annual  Report  but  continuously  along  the 
period and across units and activities 

to  move 

towards  optimised  business 
how 
processes and procedures in all areas by keeping 
up  with  the  advancement  in  technology  and  the 
most recent e-solutions.

-to critically evaluate the gaps in reporting and monitoring 
tools which would allow a proper performance monitoring, 
compliance oversight at the appropriate level of detail and 
enrich the management decision-making

•	

•	

As a way to manage the new tasks fostered by the new 
CFP and the pressure coming from the staff cuts, the first 
step  was  to  elaborate  a  SWOT Analysis  which  captured 
the Agency’s  most  likely  response  (via  its  Strengths  and 
Weaknesses) to all the inherent and specific insecurities  
coming  from  the  external  environment  (translated  into 
Threats and Opportunities). 

The  SWOT  conducted  to  the  enhancement  of  EFCA’s 
business  model.  For  its  successful  implementation  and 
transformation into a day-to-day reality, the Agency’s staff 
was invited to give its contribution. The ED has appointed 
a number of four Task Forces (as many as major business 
areas)  and  they  worked  under  clearly  defined  Terms  of 
reference. Before the end of 2014, all Task Forces have 
provided  their  feedback  which  was  presented  in  front  of 
EFCA management.

To  take  their  conclusions  further  in  the  next  year,  a 
Business Plan is envisaged to extract the most valuable 
ideas and opportunities. The planned approach is:

-to  identify  the  most  necessary  tools  which  would  allow 
to cover the gaps whilst ensuring the implementation of a 
coherent Assurance framework commonly understood by 
all players.

The  achievements  in  implementation  of  an  enhanced 
Assurance framework have been as follows:

- 

- 

- 

a  detailed  description  of  the  EFCA  Assurance 
Landscape  adopted  by  the  Executive  Director’s 
decision No. 2014/015 of 12 September 2014;

an  EFCA  Management  Scorecard  as  a  tool 
to  quarterly  monitor  performance  and 
the 
achievement of the AWP  objectives  at the level 
of the Agency;

new  reports  with  enhanced  relevance  and 
centralised  follow-ups  aimed  to  ensure  timely 
identification  of  anomalies  and  support  more 
informed decisions regarding corrective measures 
and actions that would allow to keep EFCA ahead 
of expectations

80

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyFor  2015,  EFCA  plans  are  to  refine  its  reporting  and 
monitoring framework implemented in 2014 in connection 
with all the other improvements expected to be applied by 
the end of the year.

•	 Roadmap  on  the  follow-up  to  the  Common 

Approach on EU decentralised agencies

In  line  with  the  Common  Approach  endorsed  by  the 
European  Parliament,  the  Council  and  the  Commission 
in  July  2012,  the  Commission  prepared  a  “roadmap  on 
the  follow-up  to  the  Common  Approach  with  concrete 
timetables  for  the  planned  initiatives”.  EFCA  is  actively 
committed to put in place the actions to be performed as 
defined by the Commission.

At the time of drafting the annual report 2014, the action 
n°17  of  the  roadmap-  working  arrangements  with  the 
European Commission for EFCA’s international  activities 
was just concluded.

The progress of each action is closely followed-up and the 
state of play as 31 December 2014 is as follows:

3.2  Compliance and Effectiveness of Internal  

Control System

Since  the  start  of  its  activities,  the  Agency  has  been 
developing  and  implementing  a  broad  range  of  internal 
measures to ensure that its work is subject to control and 
to provide reasonable assurance to management on the 
achievement of the Agency’s objectives. 

Thanks  to  these  internal  control  measures,  it  is  ensured 
that  the Agency’s  operational  activities  are  effective  and 
efficient as well as compliant with all legal and regulatory 
requirements, that financial and management reporting is 
reliable and that assets and information are safeguarded. 

In  order  to  formalise  these  arrangements,  in  2008  the 
Administrative Board of the Agency adopted a set of Internal 
Control  Standards  (ICS),  based  on  the  Commission’s 
and  international  good  practice,  aimed  to  ensure  the 
achievement  of  the  policy  and  operational  objectives. 
As  a  result,  the  Agency  established  the  organisational 
structure and the internal control systems to be in line with 
the  standards  and  with  the  risk  environment  in  which  it 
operates. 

On-
going;
13

Implemented;
22

Not
Applicable, 5

81

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency•	 During 2014, the Agency made the following efforts in the area of the ICS implementation:

ICS No. 1. Mission

Following the implementation of the new Intranet, Mission statements are 
readily accessible, and more known to staff.

ICS No. 2. Ethical and 
Organisational Values 

A new comprehensive policy on prevention and management of Conflict of 
Interests was adopted by the AB during 2014.

A targeted antifraud strategy was also adopted by the AB during 2014.

ICS No. 5 Objectives and 
performance indicators’

The  Agency  implemented  an  EFCA  management  scorecard,  therefore 
monitors the attainment of its objectives throughout the year via a new set 
of improved key performance indicators.  

ICS No 10. Business continuity 

During 2014, some steps were taken to reinvigorate the process. A coordi-
nation group is in place and the critical process/activities were re-assessed 
taken into account EFCA’s current needs.

ICS No. 12. Information and 
Communication 

Reporting  to  management  was  improved  for  the Agency’s  main  activities. 
There is now in place a revised reporting and governance framework which 
includes concise management information necessary to oversee the entity’s 
activities and evolution, performance indicators, financial information, legality 
and regularity, project deadlines, significant audit findings, HR indicators and 
equal opportunity targets, and other relevant management information.

For 2014, the Agency carried out a self-assessment exercise. For the first time an extensive survey was conducted using 
iCAT (Internal Control Assessment Tool). The iCAT results consist of a set of effectiveness indicators, per standard and 
for the whole system. The results obtained can be summarised as below:

82

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyAverage
Weighted
effectiveness

ICS 1
ICS 2
ICS 3
ICS 4
ICS 5
ICS 6
ICS 7
ICS 8
ICS 9
ICS 10
ICS 11
ICS 12
ICS 13
ICS 14
ICS 15
ICS 16

0 %

10 %

20 %

30 %

40 %

50 %

60 %

70 %

80 %

90 %

100 %

The  ICC  conducted  the  annual  assessment  of  the 
Internal  Control  Standards  which  was  based  on  a  desk 
review, the survey results, the analysis of the exceptions 
reported and interviews of key people responsible for the 
implementation of the 16 ICS’s. Furthermore, the IAC has 
performed his own assessment on the state of play of ICS 
implementation and reported to the ICC. 

This  has  led  to  the  assessment  of  the Agency’s  internal 
control status at the end of the reporting year with respect 
to both: the compliance with ICS and the effectiveness of 
internal control system. 

All  of  the  above  had  enabled  the  ICC  to  report  on  the 
state of internal control system in place and to present his 
recommendations to the Executive Director (including his 
suggestions for any ICS to be prioritised during the next 
year and the related actions).

Concerning the overall state of the internal control system, 
generally the Agency complies with the three assessment 
criteria for effectiveness; 

(a) staff having the required knowledge and skills;

(c)  no instances of ineffective controls that have exposed 

the Agency to its key risks.

Further enhancing the effectiveness of the Agency’s control 
activities  in  place,  by  inter  alia  taking  into  account  any 
control weaknesses reported and exceptions recorded, is 
an on-going effort in line with the principles of continuous 
improvement  of  management  procedures  and  of  sound 
financial management.

•	

ICS implementation state of play 

The state of play of ICSs implementation at the end of 2014:

Not
compliant
6 %

Partially
Compliant
31 %

Compliant
63 %

-  EFCA complies with 10 out of the existing 16 ICSs.

(b)  systems and procedures designed and implemented 

- 

to manage the key risks effectively;

EFCA  is  not  compliant  or  partially  compliant  with  6 
ICSs.

83

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
In conclusion, EFCA assesses the effectiveness of its key 
internal  control  system  every  year,  relying  on  a  number 
of  monitoring  measures  and  sources  of  information, 
and  concludes  that  the  internal  control  standards  are 

compliant and effectively implemented with the exceptions 
below.  However,  measures  are  taken  to  further  improve 
compliance towards a strengthen effectiveness. 

•	  Priorities and concentration of efforts for 2015

ICS Description

Status

ICS.7 Operational Structure
ICS.8 Processes and Procedures
ICS.10 Business Continuity
ICS.11 Document Management
ICS.12 Information & Communication
ICS.16 Internal Audit Capability

Partially compliant
Partially compliant
Partially compliant
Not compliant
Partially Compliant
Partially compliant67

Priority 
(compliant 
by the end of 
2015)




Deferred


EFCA 
planned 
concentration 
of efforts

15%
15%
50%
10%
10%
0%

100%

3.3. Legality and Regularity of transactions

3.3.1 Ex-ante and ex-post controls

The  EFCA´s  current  financial  regulation  establishes  a  4 
eye principle, where all aspects of each operation must be 
verified by at least one member of staff other than the one 
who initiated it. The ex-ante controls are performed based 
on a well-established checklist designed for each type of 
transaction (commitment, payment).

Up  to  2014,  all  financial  transactions  were  subject  to 
ex-ante  verification  before  they  were  authorised  by  an 
Authorising Officer (AO). 

EFCA could safely merge the verification and authorisation 
processes into one step for certain type of transactions of 
low value and/or recurrent nature. This reduced validation 
workflow was implemented in August 2014. 

On the same time, to give a similar level of assurance to 
the Authorising Officers, EFCA defined a quarterly ex-post 
verification  methodology.  Those  financial  transactions 
which  are  not  being  verified  ex-ante  were  subject  to  a 
formal  ex-post  verification  procedure.  The  first  exercise 
of  ex-post  verification  was  done  in  November  2014  and 
resulted  in  a  projected  error  rate  of  0.25%.  Therefore, 
after  this  first  assessment  there  is  no  doubt  to  continue 
with the same simplified approach in processing financial 
transactions.

However, with a view to increasing efficiency in processing 
financial  transactions,  a  risk  assessment  was  carried 
out  during  2013  over  the  entire  population  of  financial 
transactions  of  the  previous  year.  It  was  concluded  that 

Furthermore,  an  ex-post  verification  was  carried  out 
in  2014  by  an  external  experienced  staff  from  EMSA 
covering all 2013 transactions. All items from the selected 

67  In line with the new financial regulation the IAC must exercise its activities in line with relevant professional auditing standards (IPPF). Even though the IAC is 
compliant while performing his audit work his activities have to undergo an external assessment as required by the standards. IAC services are shared with EMSA 
via an SLA, on this subject EMSA is taking the necessary actions an external assessment is scheduled to take place end 2015.

84

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agencysample were subject of a walkthrough which evaluated the 
appropriateness of treatment from the initiating event until 
the accounting posting. The final report did not reveal any 
errors,  solely  proposed  improvements  for  alignment  with 
best practices. This exercise will be repeated in 2015 for 
2014 transactions.

3.3.2 Exception Reporting

for 

EFCA  adopted  a  procedure 
registration  and 
authorisation  of  exceptions  in  September  2010.  The 
objective of the procedure is to ensure that the exceptions 
and deviations from established policies and procedures 
are properly justified and documented. All the exceptions 
detected are registered no matter the amount related.

The  functioning  of  the  internal  control  systems  has 
been  closely  monitored  throughout  the  year  also  by  the 
systematic registration of exceptions.

In  2014,  a  number  of  9  exceptions  were  registered  in 
the  register  of  exceptions  the  same  number  as  the  year 
before. From the 9 exceptions registered 3 were ex-ante 
exceptions and 6 were ex-post (non-compliance events).

All  three  ex-ante  exceptions  were  brought  about  by 
circumstances  which  are  not  expected  to  frequently 
repeat. However, if the circumstances which led to these 
ex ante exceptions were to be repeated, amendments to 
the current relevant procedures should be considered.

In the case of the non-compliance events (ex post), the “a 
posteriori” commitments were all part of the annual budget 
programming of 2014 and did not imply any financial impact 
for EFCA. The specific circumstances of each event support 
the  conclusion  that  there  is  no  systemic  occurrence,  the 
events being caused by quite individual situations.

is  to  keep  high  the  necessary    awareness  on  what  can 
go wrong in those areas where the events have appeared 
(especially in the case of non-compliance events).

3.4. Risk Management

EFCA has identified risks in different areas (financial and 
non-financial), for each risk action plans were established 
and are followed-up closely. The Agency is aware that risk 
management is a continuous exercise. Therefore risks are 
updated and assessed if major changes occur.

For 2014 an annual risks assessment exercise took place 
and two critical risks were identified:

-  Preparation  of  a  strategic  Joint  Deployment 
planning  without  a  Specific  Control  and  inspection 
Programme  adopted  on  time  by  the  Commission. 
Should the required JDP not be strategically planned 
and  subsequently 
implemented  because  of  an 
absence of a SCIP, this could jeopardize the smooth 
implementation  of  EFCA  AWP  and  may  lead  to 
budget appropriations not being used. 

- 

In  several  areas  of  activity  the  Agency  is  heavily 
dependent  on  staff  with  specific  expertise.  Back  up 
arrangements  are  not  always  easy  to  implement 
especially internally. Long term absence or departure 
of these staff members might cause a (serious) delay 
or interruption of activities.

For each risk the Agency defined an action plan in order to 
ensure mitigation up to an acceptable level of the residual 
risk. During 2014 no prominent risks have materialised.

Therefore  the  number  of  exceptions  recorded  remains 
low  with  no  financial  impact.  No  significant  systemic 
weaknesses  have  been  exposed  and  they  would  not 
represent a problem even if scalability would become more 
important. The most pertinent action for the coming year 

In principle, the controls aimed at preventing and detecting 
fraud are not unlike those intended to ensure the legality 
and regularity of the transactions (the unintentional errors) 
e.g.:

•	 Fraud prevention and detection

85

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyThe ‘four eyes’ principle applied at each level gives 
reasonable  assurance  of  compliance  with  the  legal 
framework;

For each recommendation EFCA drafted a comprehensive 
action  plan  and  considers  that  all  the  recommendations 
will be addressed throughout 2015.

- 

- 

- 

the 
The  automated  controls  embedded  over 
workflows  of  the  financial  and  accounting  systems 
(ABAC suite); 

The  salaries  calculation  and  upload  of  individual 
payments is done by PMO;

-  A  declaration  of  absence  of  conflict  of  interests  is 

always signed by panel members.

In  October  2014,  the Agency  adopted  a  comprehensive 
policy  on  the  prevention  and  management  of  conflict  of 
interests and an anti-fraud strategy. Those two documents 
that mainly aim for prevention are important instruments in 
discouraging actions and behaviours that could harm the 
Agency  reputation.  Since  the  creation  of  the Agency  no 
fraud events have occurred. 

3.5.  Assessment of audit results during  

the reporting year

3.5.1  Internal Audit Service (IAS)

In line the IAS Strategic Audit Plan 2013-2015, EFCA has 
been  audited  by  IAS  in  October  2014. The  scope  of  the 
audit engagement was focused on the process of drawing 
up the 2013 Annual report and the related Building Blocks 
of Assurance.

The report received on 15 January 2015. IAS has issued 6 
recommendations only one being rated “Very Important”. 
This  recommendation  refers  to  the  procedure  for  the 
assessment  of  the  internal  control  and  the  formulation 
of  both  the  statement  of  the  ICC  and  Executive  Director 
Declaration of Assurance.

The Agency took immediate corrective actions and singled 
out the ICC function, in order to improve the assessment of 
the internal control system. The texts of both declarations 
were revised taken into account the IAS recommendation 
and they form an integral part of this Annual Report itself.

3.5.2  Internal Audit Capability (IAC) 

Since  mid-2008  via  a  Service  Level  Agreement  EFCA 
shares the services of an Internal Audit function (Internal 
Audit  Capability-IAC)  with  the  European  Maritime  Safety 
Agency (EMSA) located in Lisbon. 

The IAC is dedicated to provide assurance and advice to 
the Agency’s  Executive  Director  on  internal  control,  risk 
assessment and internal audit. As in previous years, the 
Agency made use of this service, in line with Article 84 of 
EFCA’s Financial Regulation. 

In 2014 he performed the following reviews: 

-  Audit on monitoring and reporting;

-  Annual assessment of internal control standards.

3.5.3  European Court of Auditors (ECA)

EFCA  is  audited  every  year  by  the  European  Court 
of  Auditors  (ECA).  The  audit  provides  a  Statement  of 
Assurance  as  to  the  reliability  of  the  accounts  of  the 
Agency and the legality and regularity of the transactions 
underlying them.

In  July  2014,  EFCA  received  a  Statement  of  Assurance 
certifying an unqualified opinion68 for 2013 annual accounts 
and  indicating  that  the  accounts  are  reliable  and  the 
transactions underlying the accounts are legal and regular.

The  Court  commented  on  the  high  level  of Title  2  and  3 
commitment  appropriations  carried  over  to  2014  due  to 
the large number of IT projects that were either launched 
or ongoing during 2013. The Court concluded that the total 
carry over amount was rather high, but could be justified 
due to the nature of projects.

The  final  report  also  confirmed  the  EFCA  full  completion 
of the corrective actions taken in response to the previous 
years’ comments.

68  Unqualified audit opinion - The auditor’s report contains a clear written expression of opinion on the financial statements or the legality and regularity of underlying 
transactions as a whole. An unqualified opinion is expressed when the auditor concludes that, on the whole, the underlying transactions are legal and regular and 
the supervisory and control systems are adequate to manage the risk.

86

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyIn  relation  with  2014  annual  accounts,  ECA  conducted 
one  visit  on-site  and  at  the  date  of  preparation  of  the 
present report a desk review was on-going. EFCA expects 
that  ECA’s  opinion  on  whether  the  accounts  give  a  truth 
and fair view, as well as on the legality and regularity of 
the  transactions  underlying  the  accounts,  will  provide 
a  Statement  of  Assurance  as  it  has  for  the  last  seven 
years. Any observation will be implemented as part of the 
ongoing continuous efforts towards further improvements. 

In parallel, EFCA will be audited for 2014 annual accounts 
by an external audit firm, the financial audit engagement 
will start after the issuance of this report.

3.5.4  External Evaluations

In  line  with  article  39  of  the  Founding  Regulation  of  the 
Agency, a 5 year external  independent  evaluation  of the 
Agency  was  commissioned  by  the  EFCA  Administrative 
Board  for  the  period  2007-2011.  The  evaluation  started 
in  April  2011  and  assessed  the  impact  of  the  Founding 
Regulation, the utility, relevance and effectiveness of the 
Agency and its working practices. It assessed the extent to 
which EFCA has contributed to the achievement of a high 
level  of  compliance  with  rules  made  under  the  Common 
Fisheries Policy. The evaluation results were presented in 

March 2012 during a Seminar to which the stakeholders 
were invited. 

The  Report  indicates  that  the  overall  assessment  of  the 
governance and performance of EFCA has been positive. 
On  the  whole,  governance  arrangements  have  worked 
well.  Considering  the  Agency´s  limited  resources,  its 
operation in the politically sensitive environment of fisheries 
policy,  and  current  Member  State  budget  constraints, 
performance against the evaluation criteria of relevance, 
and  effectiveness,  impact  and  sustainability,  can  be 
considered  promising.  The  Evaluation  also  commended 
the Agency for its administrative efficiency.

The Administrative Board issued recommendations to the 
European Commission regarding changes to the Founding 
Regulation, the Agency and its working practices. Both the 
evaluation findings and recommendations were forwarded 
by the European Commission to the European Parliament 
and the Council, and were made public (http://www.efca.
europa.eu/pages/home/docs_basicdocs.htm). 

The recommendations issued by the Administrative Board 
are being taken into consideration in the multiannual and 
annual work programmes of the Agency.

Below a summary of the main developments under each 
recommendation is provided.

The next 5 year external independent evaluation for the period 2012-2016 is scheduled to start in 2016.

RECOMMENDATIONS

STATE OF PLAY

1.1.1  It is too premature to propose an amendment of 
Agency regulation. Nevertheless a guidance document with 
clear description of responsibilities delimitation between 
EFCA, EC, and MS is recommended.

Partially addressed through the European 
Commission’s roadmap.

1.1.2  Level playing field and coordination and assistance 
for better compliance are considered as wider objectives of 
the Agency.

These objectives are at the core of the operational 
activities, and are included in the Agency 
multiannual and annual work programme.

87

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyRECOMMENDATIONS

STATE OF PLAY

2.1.1  Administrative Board to focus on strategic issues, 
leaving routine matters to be decided by written procedure. 

-Recommendation closed 2012-

2.1.2  Administrative Board participation is a Member State 
prerogative. 

2.1.3  The Board should reflect on the participation of other 
parties in the Administrative Board.

The participation of AB members in the AB 
meetings (including proxies) in 2014 was the 
following: 29 out of 34 in March and 32 out of 34 in 
October.

On 15 March 2012 the Board set up a working 
group on the review of the rules of procedure of 
the Board. During the discussions the possible 
extension of the participation of the Advisory Board 
observers in the Board meetings was raised. This 
possibility was mentioned to the Advisory Board 
representatives during their meeting in July 2012. 
According to the rules of procedure of the 
Administrative Board, “the Board, acting on a 
proposal from the Executive director, may authorise 
experts and persons whose opinion can be of 
interest, to attend the Board meeting as observers”.
This recommendation is also encompassed within 
the road-map on the follow-up to the Common 
Approach on EU decentralised Agencies.

2.2.1  General agreement with regard to the introduction of 
multi-species and continuous regional JDP with a solid legal 
basis and prioritisation.

All JDPs are continuous and multispecies.

-Recommendation closed 2014-

2.2.2  It was recognised to take action on improving 
estimates of Bluefin tuna biomass during transfer to cages. 

-Recommendation closed 2013-

2.2.3  To examine periodically at which level EFCA 
involvement in the JDPs provides the best added value, in 
accordance with the existing legal basis.

The proposal of the Focus Group on a methodology 
for compliance evaluation was endorsed by the 
Administrative Board on 17 October 2014.

2.3.1  Establish a clear overarching road map for training, 
in particular the remaining areas of the Core Curricula, 
including the training of trainers.

-Recommendation closed 2013-

2.3.2  Review of working methods to accelerate the 
development of the Core Curricula.

-Recommendation closed 2013-

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STATE OF PLAY

2.3.3  Ensure maintenance of Core Curricula.  

2.3.4  Establishment of regional training for national 
inspectors, as well as Union inspectors.

2.4.1  Show-case EFCA best practice on inter-agency and 
national agencies cooperation, and share EFCA experience 
on performance indicators for measuring administrative 
efficiency and effectiveness.

2.4.2  Take stock of exchanged best practices and 
dissemination via the EFCA website

2.5.1  Implement the recently prepared method for 
assessing the performance of the JDPs after discussion at 
regional level.

2.5.2  Development of indicators for measuring the 
effectiveness of capacity building.

Updating of CC courses (in respect of regional/
Union inspectors dimension under the new CFP) 
was agreed by the SGTEE on 26 November 2014.  
The corresponding expert contract was signed 
thereafter, at the beginning of December 2014. 
During the same meeting it was agreed that the 
updating in all relevant parts of the Sea and Port 
inspection CC would be handled in the period of 
2015-2016.

During 2014 EFCA held regional training actions 
within the Mediterranean and Black Sea, NAFO 
& NEAFC, Western Waters, Baltic Sea and North 
Sea JDPs as well as IUU. The regional dimension 
will be strengthened during 2015-2016 in the Sea 
and Port inspection Core Curricula (see above 
recommendation 2.3.3.)

EFCA shares its best practice and experience 
mainly through the Inter-agency Network, both in 
the Heads of Administration and Heads of Agencies 
meetings, and in the specific working groups (WG). 
Thus, among others, EFCA is an active member 
of the Agencies Performance Development 
Network in the following working groups: WG on 
performance indicators, WG on benchmarking, WG 
on Multiannual and Annual Programming and WG 
on evaluation.

Exchange of best practice promoted by EFCA 
through participation to national training sessions 
(Belgium, Malta) and workshops in the framework 
of regional training. First e-training test session 
held on 17 December 2014.

-Recommendation closed 2013-

-Recommendation closed 2013-

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STATE OF PLAY

2.5.3  Develop a method for assessing cost effectiveness 
for Member States.

2.5.4  Annual stock-taking of scientific evidence on 
developments with the fish stocks that the EFCA is focusing 
on. Consider scientific bodies request for access to data for 
scientific purposes. 

2.5.5  EFCA and the EC to study ways of exchanging 
data on compliance with the Common Fisheries Policy 
requirements, in accordance with data ownership 
requirements of Member States.

2.6.1  EFCA to develop an information portal for fisheries 
control.

EFCA, through the Focus Group 2, has developed 
in 2013 a methodology for the assessment of 
JDP costs in collaboration with Framian BV 
(Netherlands). 

The methodology was tested using 2012 JDP 
data. Estimation of 2013 JDPs was completed 
and submitted to the different steering groups for 
comments. 

A methodology for compliance evaluation was 
endorsed by the Administrative Board on 17 
October 2014. 

The combined analysis of both elements will 
provide a solid basis for cost-effectiveness 
analysis.

-Recommendation closed 2014-

EFCA maintains regular contact with the 
main scientific bodies e.g. STECF, ICES, and 
participates in the relevant meetings.

-Recommendation closed 2013-

FISHNET was launched to MS during the BFT 
campaign in June 2014 enabling MS to share 
documents, access fisheries related data and to 
host and join video conferencing (with the sole use 
of an laptop with microphone and headphones) and 
chat in forums.

-Recommendation closed 2014-

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STATE OF PLAY

2.6.2  Encourage the Agency to continue synergies 
between different meetings and use of telephone and video 
conferencing.

2.6.3  Enhancing regular, systematic, and effective 
communication with other stakeholders, particularly Member 
States, regarding the development of Agency activities.

FISHNET has been launched and is for the first 
time being used to connect MS in an easy, secure, 
multi-user enabled way, where users only need a 
laptop with microphone and earphones to connect 
or create a meeting.
Most of the meetings of the different working 
groups of the Inter-Agency Development Network 
took place by phone conference.
Video-conferencing continues to be issued in 
recruitment procedures.

The Agency has a yearly communication plan that 
encompasses its main informative activities.

3.6.  Follow up of audit plans, audits and 

3.7.  Follow up of observations from the 

recommendations

Discharge authority

In  2014,  the  Agency  has  developed  and  implemented  a 
centralised monitoring of all audit recommendations in order 
to improve the follow-up of corresponding action plans.

Therefore, all the recommendations issued by the Internal 
Audit Capability (IAC), the internal Audit Service (IAS) and 
the European Court of auditors (ECA) were consolidated 
and the ICC was appointed as responsible for monitoring 
the progress.

Number of open recommendations by origin:

IAC,
2, 20%

ECA
2, 20%

IAS
6,60% 

At the moment of this reporting there were 10 open audit 
recommendations in various stages of implementation but 
there were no overdue or longstanding recommendations. 
None of the open recommendations is considered critical 
and only one was rated as very important.

In April 2014, the European Parliament (EP) granted the 
Executive  Director  of  the  European  Fisheries  Control 
Agency  the  discharge  in  respect  of  the  implementation 
of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2012. At the 
same  time  the  EP  acknowledged  from  the  Agency  that 
observations from past years were fully implemented. 

On its resolution the EP requested the Agency to assess 
its policy on the prevention and management of conflict of 
interests  and  to  make  publicly  available  the  declarations 
of  interests  of  the  Administrative  Board,  the  Executive 
Director and senior management. These two observations 
were  monitored  and  followed-up  via  action  plans.  They 
were both implemented by the end of 2014.

The EP resolution contained a number of recommendations 
addressed  to  the  EU  agencies  collectively;  EFCA  is 
actively  committed  to  follow-up  and  implement  the  EP 
observations of horizontal nature, where applicable to the 
Agency. 

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Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency 
Part IV. Management assurance

This  chapter  reviews  the  assessment  of  the  elements 
contained  in  this  report  and  draws  the  conclusions 
supporting the Declaration of Assurance of the Executive 
Director  and  whether  or  not  it  should  be  qualified  with 
reservations.

Taking into account all the elements reviewed below, it can 
be  positively  concluded  that  the  Executive  Director  has 
reasonable  assurance  and  has  no  reasons  to  introduce 
any reservation for the year 2014

4.1  Review of the elements supporting assurance

•	

•	

•	

•	

•	

the  low  impact  of  quantitative  and  qualitative 
nature of the identified exceptions 

the materiality framework (Annex VIII) 

the progress made during the year in regularly 
monitoring  performance  and  overseeing 
the  on-going  action  plans  for  all  necessary 
improvements and reinforcements

the resources allocated to trainings in relation to 
the implementation of the Financial Regulation, 
Ethics and Integrity and Fraud prevention

the  EFCA  Anti-fraud  strategy  and  Conflict  of 
Interests  policy  adopted  by  the  EFCA  AB  in 
2014.

The  Executive  Director  has  relied  on  the  following 
elements of assurance:

4.2.  Reservations and overall conclusion on 

assurance

•	

•	

•	

•	

•	

•	

the positive assessment of the EFCA’s Internal 
Control system and the satisfactory compliance 
in  the  implementation  of  the  Internal  Control 
standards 

the statement of the Internal Control Coordinator

the  management  of  risks  which  are  being 
appropriately monitored and mitigated 

the absence of overdue or long standing audit 
recommendations

the  absence  of  open  observations  from  the 
European Parliament

the positive Statement of Assurance issued by 
ECA in 2014 for the financial year 2013 on the 
true  and  fair  view  of  the  EFCA  2013  Annual 
Accounts  and  on  the  legality  and  regularity  of 
the underlying transactions

The  information  reported  in  this  report  stems  from  the 
results  of  management  monitoring  controls  and  the 
systematic analysis by the internal and external auditors 
and other assurance providers of the evidence available. 
This  approach  provides  sufficient  guarantees  of  the 
exhaustiveness and reliability of the reported information 
and  results  in  a  complete  coverage  of  the  budget  and 
resources  delegated  to  the  Executive  Director  and 
assigned to the activities described herein, including those 
within the framework of the Annual work programme and 
approved by the Administrative Board.

In  conclusion,  for  2014  nothing  opposes  in  signing  the 
Declaration of Assurance.

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Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency4.2.1  Statement of the Internal Control Coordinator

EFCA/ED/2015/D-0089

Statement of the Internal Control Coordinator

I  hereby  declare  that  in  accordance  with  my  responsibilities  as  Internal  Control  Coordinator,  I  have  reported  my 
assessment, advice and recommendations to the Executive Director on the overall state of internal control in EFCA.

I certify that the information provided in the relevant sections of the present Activity Report and its annexes is, to the best 
of my knowledge, accurate and exhaustive.

Vigo, 04/02/2015

______________________________

(Signed)
Paulo Castro
Internal Control Coordinator

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Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control Agency4.2.2  Declaration of Assurance

Vigo, 11 February 2015
EFCA/2015/D-00094

I, the undersigned, Executive Director of the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), 

DECLARATION OF ASSURANCE

In my capacity as authorising officer, 

Declare that the information contained in this report gives a true and fair view69. 

State that I have reasonable assurance that the resources assigned to the activities described in this report have 
been used for their intended purpose and in accordance with the principles of sound financial management, and 
that the control procedures put in place give the necessary guarantees concerning the legality and regularity of 
the underlying transactions. 

This reasonable assurance is based on my own judgement and on the information at my disposal, inter alia:

 

 

 

 

 

 

the results of the annual review of the internal control system;

the statement issued by the Internal Control Coordinator;

the results and follow-up of ex-post audits, evaluations and controls;

the recommendations of the Internal Audit Service and the Internal Audit Capability, the accompanying 
action plans and their follow up;

the lessons learnt from the reports of the Court of Auditors and the accompanying action plans and  their 
follow up;

the lessons learnt from the discharge reports of the Discharge authority for years prior to the year of this 
declaration. 

Confirm that I am not aware of anything not reported here which could harm the interests of the agency. 

Done at Vigo on 11 February 2015

 (Signed)
Pascal SAVOURET
Executive Director

69True and fair in this context means a reliable, complete and correct view on the state of affairs in the service.

94

Annual ReportEuropean Fisheries Control AgencyHOW TO OBTAIN EU PUBLICATIONS

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