"Many international meetings on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing have been held in the past. Many of them have been useful because they have raised awareness of the burning need for the international community to tackle this scourge together. But the Lisbon’s Conference has gone further than that: it has brought both a real commitment to action, and a pragmatic emphasis on identifying and using the best means at our disposal. By underlining the importance of specific instruments to address the trade dimension, the Declaration reinforces the Commission’s recent proposal for new measures to eliminate pirate fishing that can really deliver. It also assures us that we have the backing of international partners, including several developing countries with major fisheries interests, not just in our goals, but also in the means that we intend to deploy. There must be zero tolerance for illegal fishing activities that deplete fish stocks, damage marine ecosystems and rob honest fishermen and coastal communities of food and income. For its part, the Commission will continue its work with all like-minded partners at all levels of interaction to ensure that such criminal activities are brought to an end." The high-level Conference on eradicating IUU fishing was hosted jointly by the Commission and the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union. It brought together EU Fisheries Ministers and Representatives with their counterparts from around a dozen of the most important of the EU’s international fisheries partners, mainly in Africa and the North Atlantic
