COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Marketing standards framework for fishery and aquaculture products
Date: 2019-12-20
Institutions: Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission
Subjects: European standard, aquaculture, common organisation of markets, fishery product, fresh product, marketing standard, preserved product, product quality, refrigerated product, supply chain

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 20.12.2019  SWD(2019) 455 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION Marketing standards framework for fishery and aquaculture products {SWD(2019) 453 final}  
 
 
Executive summary 

The  present  evaluation  assessed  whether  the  regulatory  framework  defined  by  the  existing 
marketing standards for fishery and aquaculture products is still fit for purpose and whether it 
allows  achieving  the  objectives  set  out  in  Regulation  (EU)  No  1379/2013  on  the  common 
organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products (the ‘CMO’ Regulation). The 
existing marketing standards only cover fresh  and chilled fishery products,  canned tuna and 
bonito as well as preserved sardine and sardine-type products. 

These objectives are (i) to enable the EU market to be supplied with sustainable products, (ii) 
to allow realising the full potential of the internal market in fishery and aquaculture products, 
(iii) to help to improve the profitability of production by facilitating marketing activities based 
on fair competition and (iv) to ensure that imported products meet the same requirement and 
marketing standards as Union producers. 

The evaluation assessed the performance of the marketing standards framework according to 
five criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value. An external 
evaluation  study  contributed  to  the  assessment1.  The  evaluation  provides  evidence  and 
conclusions that will form the basis for a possible future revision of the marketing standards 
framework so that it can achieve its objectives and produce the desired results. 

Relevance: The existing standards are still relevant for the products covered. The scope of the 
current  EU  marketing  standards,  based  on  their  current  criteria,  also  seems  to  be  relevant, 
except in the case of standardised products, such as fish fingers, for which the absence of EU 
minimum quality criteria has raised issues, and potentially for some fresh products based on 
industry demand. 

Effectiveness:  The  achievements  against  the  objectives  defined  in  the  CMO  Regulation  are 
limited  by  the  standards’  narrow  scope  in  terms  of  products  covered  and  by  their  focus  on 
quality. Therefore, the standards, in their current form, cannot generally enable the EU market 
to be supplied with sustainable products or provide market transparency on that aspect. There 
is  no  evidence  that  the  standards  facilitated  or  obstructed  exchanges  within  the  internal 
market.  The  standards  may  have  positively  affected  profitability,  at  least  indirectly,  by 
preventing  that  competition  takes  place  to  the  detriment  of  product  quality.  Finally,  the 
standards do not contribute to a level playing field as regards, in particular, environmental and 
social  aspects  for any  of the products  covered. This  is  a  concern for operators in  all supply 
chains for fishery and aquaculture products, including those products currently not covered by 
the standards. 

Efficiency:  The  enforcement  costs  of  the  standards  for  public  authorities  are  marginal,  and 
implementation  costs  borne  by  operators  are  marginal  or  null.  Overall,  the  benefits  of  the 
standards  outweigh  the  costs  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  alternatives,  such  as  private 

1 Study: Evaluation of the marketing standards framework for fishery and aquaculture products 

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standards,  would  be  more  cost-effective.  However,  the  evaluation  detected  a  lack  of  clear 
rules  or  guidance  about  what  types  of  control  should  apply  to  the  standards  and  at  which 
stages of the supply chain. 

Coherence: EU marketing standards are generally coherent with both fisheries and sanitary 
control regulations, even though controls focus more on the legality of catch and food safety. 
Consumer  information  rules,  as  well  as  other  international  and  private  standards  provide 
additional  information  and  so  act  in  a  complementary  fashion.  Some  inconsistencies  were 
detected with international standards of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which 
may  lead  to  confusion  and  diverging  interpretations  in  the  sector  or  risk  misleading 
consumers. 

EU  added  value:  The  evaluation  found  that  EU  added  value  was  evident  as  national 
standards cannot contribute to harmonisation and transparency at an EU level, ensure a level 
playing field with non-EU products, or create a common culture of compliance. Compared to 
private  standards,  EU  marketing  standards  also  provide  free  access  to  a  common  set  of 
definitions and quality criteria and therefore ensure that all operators have access to the same 
information. 

The overall conclusion of the evaluation is that the marketing standards are generally relevant, 
efficient  and  coherent  and  add  value  within  the  boundaries  of  their  current  scope  and 
underlying criteria. However, as regards their effectiveness in achieving the objectives set out 
in  the  CMO  Regulation,  there  seem  to  be  significant  shortcomings.  The  public  consultation 
conducted  in  the  context  of  the  evaluation  called  for  increased  market  transparency  of  the 
marketing  standards.  Furthermore,  feedback  gathered  from  the  sector  indicates  that  their 
remains  an  issue  of  a  non-level  playing  field,  in  particular  in  terms  of  environmental  and 
social  aspects.  Finally,  while  market  demand  for  product  sustainability  is  increasing  (and 
leading  to  a  potentially  confusing  proliferation  of  private  initiatives,  each  with  its  own 
sustainability criteria) the existing marketing standards have not been equipped to deliver on 
the objective of enabling the EU market to be provided with sustainable products. 

The results of this evaluation will feed into a reflection on how to address the challenges and 
shortcomings  identified  and  how  to  improve  the  overall  performance  of  the  marketing 
standards framework for fishery and aquaculture products. 

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