Two sections have found their way into the Costa report on the liability of carriers of passengers that ensure that the same level of liability is imposed on carriers of passengers by inland waterway as is imposed on carriers of passengers on the high seas.

In line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, RFMOs are international organisations through which coastal states and other states fishing on the high seas cooperate in the conservation and management of fish stocks, particularly highly migratory or straddling fish stocks*, in a particular geographic area.

The absence of a regional fisheries management organisation or arrangement does not exempt States from their obligation under the law of the Sea to adopt with respect to their nationals such measures as may be necessary for the conservation of the living resources of the high seas, including the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems against the harmful effects of fishing activities.

Everything about that tragic event – from the migrants on a rubber boat on the high seas, to the people smugglers who put them there and the authorities who jailed their rescuers – is testament to the failure of Europe’s approach to migration.

56. Highlights the threat to biodiversity posed by deep sea bottom-trawling and other unsustainable fishing practices; takes note of the recent decision in the UN General Assembly in this regard; urges the Commission to come forward as soon as possible with legislative proposals on bottom fisheries in the high seas; urges the Commission to work with the UN and the relevant Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, where they exist, to adopt and implement measures to manage all fisheries that are conducted on the high seas, including those using trawls; further urges the Commission to work towards the urgent implementation of measu ...[+++]res to protect important deep sea habitats in the high seas from destructive fishing practices, including bottom-trawling;

What we are actually discussing here is whether it is legitimate in Europe – because this is a European issue – for a military corvette to confront three men and three women on the high seas and prevent them from reaching a Portuguese port, when they were on a legal vessel and were providing a medical service that has been duly legalised in another Member State.