Introduction
The European Union (EU) is one of the world’s leading fishing powers and is party in its own right to several dozen multilateral, regional, and bilateral agreements on the management and conservation of fisheries, an area of exclusive EU competence under the common fisheries policy. [1] Absolute clarity regarding the prerogatives of the European institutions in the conduct of the EU’s external representation is therefore of fundamental importance for all concerned with legal proceedings in international courts and tribunals.
