A 45-year retrospective of the European Union’s fishing access agreements with coastal States of the Global South

Since the end of the 1970s, the European Union (EU) has formalized and developed its member States’ longstanding and significant presence in the waters of developing coastal States through fishing access agreements. This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the change in scope and scale of these agreements since their inception 45 years ago. Facilitated by the EU’s relatively high levels of transparency, we use data from legal texts and vessel authorizations to examine trends in species targeted, financial allocations, and geopolitical dynamics. We show that these agreements have shifted from targeting diverse species to focusing predominantly on tuna. However, we also show that a minor fraction of the EU’s fleet engaged in these agreements benefited from a disproportionate share of public subsidies, as small pelagic fisheries indeed accounted for 63.9% of the overall EUR 4.8 B allocated, while they only accounted for 7.6% of the fishing capacity (in tonnage). As of January 2025, the number of active agreements has declined to nine, reflecting shifting geopolitical and economic interests. EU fishing access agreements illustrate ongoing tensions between economic interests, resource sustainability, and equity. Future agreements will have to balance support to the EU’s distant-water fleet with fairer, more cooperative arrangements to ensure equity and long-term sustainability. This paper provides a clear historical overview of the change in EU access agreements over time to support future analyses comparing the relative merits of different approaches to access arrangements for both resource seekers and owners.