Appendix II of CITES

In March 2009, European Eel was listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) also known as the Washington Convention, an international agreement between states to control and regulate international trade in endangered species in order to protect them from over-exploitation.
For CITES: « Appendix II lists species which although not necessarily now threatened with extinction, but could become so if trade in their specimens is not tightly controlled »
Unable to demonstrate that international trade in the species didn’t have a detrimental effect on its conservation, the CITES Council requested a zero export quota outside the European Union in December 2010.
As the European Union can not provide proof of the absence of negative impact of international trade on the eel stock, the zero export quota outside the European Union will be maintained.