The European Union has conveyed its willingness to engage constructively and transparently regarding the concerns raised over recent months, as stated by the organization’s office in Gabon via a social media post.
In June 2025, President Brice Oligui Nguema had declared the initiation of a “unilateral denunciation procedure” for these accords, characterizing the partnership as “profoundly unbalanced” and requiring renegotiation.
The EU confirms its readiness to negotiate a “new generation Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement, along with a new, mutually beneficial implementation protocol,” advocating for a forward-looking approach to establish a “renewed, balanced, and effective framework.”
Initially signed in 2007, the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the European Union and Gabon has historically granted European vessels the right to fish within Gabonese waters.
“The President of the Republic notably highlighted that the revenues generated from this agreement fail to offset the true value of catches, nor do they cover the state’s costs for surveillance and control, or the losses in added value resulting from the absence of local processing,” the Gabonese government detailed in a cabinet meeting report last June, which questioned the agreement’s efficacy.
The report further criticized “the limited investments made by partners towards local development, employment, or strengthening national capacities, as well as the heightened risks of overexploitation of fishery resources, in the absence of shared transparency and scientific monitoring mechanisms.”
The SFPA underwent several renewals, extending its validity until 2021 for a period of five years, and held an “estimated total value of approximately 17 billion CFA francs” (about 26 million euros), according to the Gabonese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
