VICTORIA, Seychelles —
the Minister for Fisheries and the Blue Economy, Mr Wallace Cosgrow, told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the new protocol implementing the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between Seychelles and the European Union will be signed in Brussels on 27 July by the EU Commissioner for Fisheries and himself, capping nine months of negotiation and resetting the terms of EU access to the Seychelles tuna fishery.
The current six-year EU-Seychelles protocol expires at the end of this year. The replacement, parliamentary records show, cuts the EU purse seine fleet in Seychelles waters from 40 to 30 vessels while keeping the longline fleet steady at 8 vessels, bringing the agreement more closely in line with the capacities registered with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC). The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU confirmed in April 2026 that the framework had been broadly agreed.
Under the renewed terms, the EU will pay an annual access fee of EUR 2.75 million, up from EUR 2.5 million under the outgoing protocol, for a reference tonnage that has been raised from 50,000 to 55,000 tonnes. Sectoral support for the sustainable development of the Seychellois fisheries sector climbs to EUR 3 million a year, an increase of EUR 200,000, with the money earmarked for scientific research, monitoring, control and surveillance, the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, small-scale fisheries development and the training and professionalisation of local seafarers. Annual licence fees paid by shipowners for tuna purse seiners rise from EUR 59,500 to EUR 72,000, the environmental fee per tonne goes up from EUR 2.25 to EUR 2.50, and a new “rendez-vous” clause requires EU vessels to install electronic monitoring cameras on board.
The new protocol will apply provisionally from the day after signature until the European Parliament and the Council of the EU complete the formal consent procedure. Cosgrow told the Assembly that the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee had already signalled broad support and that he expected full ratification by the end of the year. He described the package as a fair balance between the sector’s economic and ecological priorities and noted that the “rendez-vous” clause gave Seychelles’ Fisheries Surveillance Authority real-time data on vessel activity, addressing concerns raised by Seychelles’ participation in last year’s Blue Marine Foundation investigation into reflagging practices by European-owned Indian Ocean purse seine operators.
Honourable Bernard Georges questioned the minister during the Assembly sitting on the impact of the protocol on the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), in particular the cost of installing and maintaining the new electronic monitoring systems and the share of sectoral support that would be passed on to the SFA to fund that work. Cosgrow said an inter-agency group, including the SFA and the Department of Blue Economy, would be set up to manage the rollout and that the first EUR 1.2 million of sectoral support would be released in the third quarter of 2026.
The signing in Brussels on 27 July will be followed by technical meetings in Victoria to operationalise the new terms. Cosgrow said the first EU vessel authorisations under the renewed protocol would be issued from 1 January 2027.
Sources cited: 1. European Parliament, “MEPs approve the renewal of the fisheries partnership with Seychelles”, 12 November 2020 (background on prior protocol),
