A legal opinion suggesting Germany is in breach of a 2010 European Union law preventing imports of illegal fish is based on misleading assumptions, and gets several key aspects of the rule wrong, Matthias Keller, managing director of the German Fish Processors Association, Bundesverband der Deutschen Fischindustrie und des Fischgroßhandels (BV Fisch), told IntraFish.

German environmental lawyers at Rechtsanwälte Günther, which was commissioned by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana and WWF, published the report on Thursday.

The report concluded current procedures for the checking and risk-based verification of catch certificates (CCs), that accompany imported seafood consignments, are "inadequate to effectively enforce the import prohibition." 

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