About us

The Long Distance Fleet Advisory Council (LDAC) is an EU fisheries stakeholder body co-funded by the European Commission and recognized bythe CFP Regulation (UE) No 1380/2013 as an organization aiming a European Interest. It was established in 2004 by virtue of the Council Decision (EC) No 585/2004, andbecame operational in May 2007.

Our mission is to provide advice to the European Institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament) and EU Member States on matters related to Fisheries Agreements with Third Countries, relations with Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) in which the EU is a contracting party, or with international organizations in whose waters the EC Fleet operates, as well as trade policy and international market for fish products.

Our main goal is to promote the conservation of marine biodiversity and the sustainable use of fishing resources. More specifically, our key areas of workare:

1) Fighting against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, including the improvement of coordination of MCS (Monitoring, Control and Surveillance) systems. The LDAC is actively engaged with the European Commission and the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) on this topic.

2) Promoting the external dimension of the CFP and coordination with other EU policies, particularly for environment, development for cooperation and trade. The LDAC has signed a MoU with COMHAFAT (the Ministerial Conference of African Coastal States in the Atlantic Ocean) to enhance capacity building in West Africa, fostering good practices at a regional level.

3) Improving transparency and governance in decision making in fisheries management, for instance through the Tuna Transparency Initiative (TTI) in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

The LDAC is currently made upby fishing sector organisations (including catching, processing and marketing sectors, and trade unions), and other groups of interest (environmental NGOs, consumers and civil society). Its composition is 60:40 and currently has more than 50 members from 12EU coastal Member States.