Unwanted catches and discards have contributed to undermining the sustainability of fish stocks. The European Union’s most important step to reduce discards was the implementation of a landing obligation for all its commercial fisheries. However, evaluations by EU authorities and scientists alert of general lack of compliance with this landing obligation. This article inquiries on the factors of institutional nature that could have contributed to this outcome. We identify three important institutional factors related to the EU multilevel governance approach that, through diverse mechanisms, contribute to the landing obligation’s generalized non-compliance: (a) the centralized, top-down governance approach, (b) the influence of special interests and (c) the decentralized enforcement.
Soto-Oñate, D., & Lemos-Nobre, A. C. (2021). The European Union landing obligation: The compliance problems derived from its multilevel approach. Marine Policy, 132, 104666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104666