On 26 September in Malta, 18 Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal states committed themselves to developing “objectives, principles and concrete actions” to be applied across the region through a regional plan of action (RPOA) and thus “to ensure the long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability of small-scale fisheries”. Such a political commitment was made possible thanks to the joint efforts of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean and Black Sea (GFCM) and the European Commission.