Outermost regions in line for fisheries, EUDR and asylum easings

The Commission has proposed a single Council Regulation adapting five EU acts to the conditions of the nine outermost regionsEuropa — Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint-Martin, the Azores and Madeira, and the Canary IslandsEuropa. The proposal, COM(2026) 661 of 10 September 2026Europa, is not yet in forceEuropa; it must be adopted by the Council after consulting the European ParliamentEuropa, on the sole legal basis of Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European UnionEuropa. On fisheries, France would get five more years to set a fleet capacity ceiling for MayotteEuropa: the derogation letting France add fishing capacity without withdrawing equivalent capacityEuropa would run until 31 December 2030 instead of 31 December 2025EuropaEuropa. The extension follows the destruction caused by Cyclone Chido in December 2024, which prevented the rebuilding of Mayotte's underdeveloped fleet and the identification and registration of its vessels. Imposing capacity limits now, the proposal warns, could constrain capacity before it is rebuilt and undermine food security in a territory dependent on costly food imports.

On agriculture, tropical staples of the outermost regions' daily diet — fresh and frozen manioc (cassava), yams, taro and yautia (malanga) for human consumption, desiccated coconut, turmeric and ginger — would move into the fruit-and-vegetables and processed fruit-and-vegetables sectors of the Common Markets Organisation RegulationEuropa. That shift makes them eligible for support through operational programmes run by existing fruit-and-vegetables producer organisations under the CAP Strategic Plans RegulationEuropa, and brings the fresh products under the general marketing standards of Article 76, with origin information for consumersEuropa.

On deforestation, French Guiana would be excluded from the territorial scope of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), including its customs territory. Products produced in French Guiana and placed on the market there or exported to third countries, and products produced in third countries and placed on the market in French Guiana, would fall outside the EUDREuropaEuropa — reflecting enforcement constraints along porous borders with Suriname and Brazil and the territory's food-sovereignty strategy on a land mass that is 95% forest. Movements in the other direction keep full EUDR duties: goods moved from French Guiana to the rest of the Union count as entering the Union marketEuropa, and goods moved from the rest of the Union to French Guiana count as leaving itEuropa, with Due Diligence Statements or Simplified Declarations requiredEuropa.

On asylum, a specific admission-to-territory procedure would apply in the French outermost regionsEuropa, which are outside the Schengen area and face rising applications — up 26% in one year in French Guiana and seven times the 2025 level in Mayotte. An authority designated by France, other than the determining authority, could grant or refuse entry for seeking international protectionEuropa on the basis of a reasoned opinion on inadmissibility or manifestly unfounded characterEuropa, with the effective remedies of the Asylum Procedure RegulationEuropa, the fundamental-rights monitoring mechanism of Article 43(4)Europa, and the detention ground of Article 10(4)(d) of the Reception Conditions DirectiveEuropa.

On tariff quotas, Guianese processing of southern red snapper — cleaning, gutting, tailing, heading, cutting into rings or slicesEuropa under CN code 0302 89 90 — would join the operations qualifying for autonomous tariff preferencesEuropa. Up to 1,500 tonnes per year of snapper caught in the Exclusive Economic Zone by third-country vesselsEuropaEuropa and imported into French Guiana for local processing and consumptionEuropa could then enter under quota 09.2746Europa instead of bearing the 15% dutyEuropaEuropa.

Legal basis: Proposal COM(2026) 661 for a Council Regulation amending Regulations (EU) No 1380/2013, (EU) No 1308/2013, (EU) 2023/1115 and (EU) 2024/1348 and Council Regulation (EU) 2023/2720Europa, based solely on Article 349 TFEU.