The 2974th External Relations Council meeting held in Brussels on 17 November 2009 welcomed the work done under the Swedish Presidency and calls for further work on the idea of establishing an integrated approach to maritime surveillance, through a common information sharing environment in order to promote more interoperability and make best use of existing systems on a cross-sectoral basis, and facilitate safe and secure exchange of information while ensuring complementarity of efforts, thus improving safety, security, cost effectiveness and efficiency, maritime situational awareness, and the facilitation of maritime transport calling at a European port or passing through European waters or its approaches.

The European Commission has adopted rules to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), which come into force in January 2010.

The regional meeting of West African states is pursuing the ACP Fish II Programme, the overall objective of which is to promote fair and sustainable management of fishing grounds with a view to reducing poverty and increasing food security in the ACP countries.The press release containing this information explains that the programme, which was launched in June 2009, will extend over a period of four and a half years ending in November 2013. It emphasizes the fact that ACP Fish II is a decentralised programme and will be managed on a regional basis by Regional Facilitation Units (RFUs) located in Senegal, Gabon, Uganda, Mozambique, Belize and the Solomon Islands, each one of which will serve a number of ACP countries.

The 2968th Council meeting on Environment held in Luxembourg on 21 October 2009 endorsed the outcome of the International Maritime Organisation Conference on Ship Recycling in May 2009 and the adoption of the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (“Hong Kong Convention”).  The Council invited the Commission to encourage voluntary actions by maritime stakeholders, such as an EU wide public awareness campaign, an award for best practices, promotion of the use of inventories for hazardous materials and of certificates foreseen in the Hong Kong Convention, as well as the greening of existing recycling facilities, while taking fully into account the provisions in the Hong Kong Convention and its guidelines.

The 2970th Council meeting on General Affairs and External Relations held in Luxembourg on 26 October 2009 adopted a regulation opening and providing for the management of Community tariff quotas for imports of certain fishery products for the period 2010 to 2012. The regulation continues a similar regime to that established by regulation 824/2007 for the period 2007 to 2009, which expires on 31 December 2009, in order to guarantee the appropriate supply conditions for the EU's processing industry for the period 2010 to 2012.

The 2966th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg, 19 October 2009 approved the sending of letters to the authorities of Equatorial Guinea and South Africa, confirming the EU's support for these countries to be granted with an observer status within the ACP/EU joint institutions. In accordance with the ACP/EU council's rules of procedure, observer status can be granted to a country from the moment it files its application for accession to the ACP/UE agreement.

At the 2966th Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting held in Luxembourg on 19 and 20 October, the European Community and its Member States recognize that while agricultural commodity prices have decreased globally since their peak in mid-2008, they remain relatively high, especially in many developing countries, compared to the situation before 2005. The food crisis has had devastating effects on the poor and vulnerable, many of whom have been unable to secure access to adequate amounts of food.

The 2966th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 19 October 2009 reached political agreement on a regulation establishing a modernised system for inspection, monitoring, control, surveillance and enforcement of the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy throughout the market chain, "from net to plate".