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An Impact Assessment (IA) is a process aimed at structuring and supporting the development of policies. Besides the fact that IA assumes different features when applied to different sectors, really it should help policy makers in evaluating the contribution to the fisheries sustainability of new regulations. The recent improvements and development around the IA methodologies go more and more toward the concept of a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA). The evolution of IA in the fishery sector has followed the general and increasing need in having a more and more integrated type of analysis, focusing on the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). This paper synthesizes the methodology developed under the EU FP7 SOCIOEC project,1 whose main objective was the application of the most recent EU guidelines on IA to the current (and future) EU fishery management. The result is an integrated approach taking into account the main pillars of sustainability and a strong stakeholders' involvement. A clear step-by-step procedure based on both qualitative and quantitative type of analyses has been defined, the last step being the "rating" phase, an essential step in a SIA, that provides the Please note that this is an author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available on the publisher Web site. possibility to assess the results of different policy options (allowing policy makers to select the most appropriate one) in terms of acceptability, effectiveness, coherence and efficiency. The overall methodology has been tested on different EU regions, fisheries and management measures.

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a b s t r a c tSince the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union in 1983, the management of EU fisheries has been enormously challenging. The abundance of many fish stocks has declined because too much fishing capacity has been utilised on healthy fish stocks. Today, this decline in fish stocks has led to overcapacity in many fisheries, leading to incentives for overfishing. Recent research has shown that the allocation of effort among fleets can play an important role in mitigating overfishing when the targeting covers a range of species (multi-species-i.e., so-called mixed fisheries), while simultaneously optimising the overall economic performance of the fleets. The so-called FcubEcon model, in particular, has elucidated both the biologically and economically optimal method for allocating catches-and thus effort-between fishing fleets, while ensuring that the quotas are not exceeded. Until now, the FcubEcon modelling approach has assumed that there is a simplified linear relationship between effort and fishing mortality. The present study introduces an extension of the FcubEcon model, the so-called SOMER model, that allows this relationship to be non-linear by linking the biological catch equation with the economic production function. Furthermore, the SOMER model relaxes the assumption of the joint production of fishing metiers, unique and separately defined sub-fleets, to allow for more detail regarding the flexibility to target specific groups of species. Thereby, the SOMER model enables the managers to assess the alternative management scenarios more accurately than the existing models.

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