The EU has one of the world's largest fishing fleets and is the top market and importer of fisheries products.

The annual value of those imports is estimated at 14 billion euros (US$19.9 billion), of which at least 1.1 billion is illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) which poses a serious risk to marine biodiversity.

"Today's illegal fishing is not a benign activity carried out by hard-up fishermen. It's not a victimless crime," Borg told a news conference. "We want to close the EU market, the largest in the world, to IUU products."

The draft law calls for a scheme where the import of all fisheries products, including processed, would require certification by the country whose flag the vessel is flying to prove the fish had been legally caught. If vessels broke the rules, they might find EU ports closed to them.

The draft law must be debated by EU-27 fisheries ministers before it can enter into force. It would seek maximum financial penalties for serious breaches and require EU governments to impose stricter controls on any of their nationals carrying out IUU fishing outside EU waters.

A lot of IUU fishing is done by vessels flying so-called flags of convenience where scrutiny by local authorities can often be minimised, officials say.

To tackle this problem, the draft EU law would "blacklist" countries used as hosts for such flags and any vessels that carried out IUU fishing. Both could face EU trade restrictions.

Blacklisting would also affect vessels registered under the flag of a country that had been deemed suspect, Borg said.

Apart from trade restrictions, sanctions included barring access to EU ports for vessels flying the flag of the country concerned and banning EU nationals from maintaining economic relationships with the fishing industry of that country.

Worldwide, illegal fishing is estimated to be worth 10 billion euros a year. Fishermen working illegally can usually maintain low operating costs and enjoy substantial profits.

Fishing using banned practices -- overly small nets, explosives or squirting chemicals into the water to stun fish without killing them, for example -- can cause a high level of unwanted by-catches, also of other species such as seabirds or turtles, that are then thrown back into the sea.