The European Union has proposed lifting a 15-month ban on fish exports from Sri Lanka after it said the country has cracked down on illegal fishing. The 28-nation bloc has meanwhile warned the Pacific island nation of Kiribati as well as Sierre Leone and Trinidad and Tobago that they risked bans if they failed to do more to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, proposed Thursday Sri Lanka be removed from the blacklist it had imposed in February last year after it amended its legal framework, strengthened sanctions and improved its fleet control. "The Commission proposes to lift the ban on fish exports from Sri Lanka," a commission spokesperson told AFP. It will now be up to EU member states to endorse Colombo's removal from the blacklist that imposes the ban, which the spokesperson said.