EU Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella is on mission to Vietnam and China this week and next. The Commissioner will use the visits to both countries push for more international cooperation on ocean governance, including in the fight against illegal fishing and marine litter.

An extraordinary Joint Committee, held at the initiative of the EU, took place in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on 15-16 November in the framework of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the EU and Mauritania. The Parties reviewed the implementation of EU support for the Mauritanian fisheries sector, introduced new fishing opportunities for EU trawlers, and discussed the MACAPEL investment project.

The Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries has developed an innovative method for producing tilapia and tomatoes that saves resources and is almost emission free.

The EU fisheries ministers have agreed on the 2017 and 2018 fishing limits (or TACs) for 19 deep-sea stocks. For the first time in six years, a unanimous agreement was reached on deep sea TACs and quotas for the next two years. One of these will be fished in accordance with Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) for the very first time next year.

This year the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, hosted by the European Union from 14 to 21 November in Vilamoura, Portugal, has to tackle an ambitious agenda.

Fisheries Ministers are to convene in Brussels on 14 November for the AGRIFISH Council. The Council is expected to reach political agreement on a regulation fixing the fishing levels for certain deep-sea fish stocks in 2017 and 2018. Deep-sea stocks have been regulated since 2003, but scientific advice indicates that they are still harvested unsustainably and that their exploitation should be further reduced.

The global ocean economy is estimated at €1.3 trillion. Climate change, poverty and food security are some of the global challenges that can be effectively addressed, if oceans are better protected and sustainably managed. The Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy adopted today a Joint Communication, proposing actions for safe, secure, clean and sustainably managed oceans. As a strong global actor, the European Union sets out an agenda for better ocean governance based on a cross-sectoral, rules-based international approach.

In the framework of the EU's "Ocean Week" initiative (7-13 November 2016), European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella will outline Europe's current efforts to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at the 22nd Convention of the Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 22) to be held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 8 to 13 November 2016.