On behalf of BirdWatch Ireland, ClientEarth, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, Ecologistas en Acción – Spain, The Fisheries Secretariat, Fundació ENT, De Nederlandse Elasmobranchen Vereniging, Stichting De Noordzee, Oceana, Our Fish, Sciaena, Seas At Risk, and WWF, we hereby respond to the European Commission’s public consultation on the progress of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) implementation, setting of fishing opportunities and the state of fish stocks.[1]
The current CFP Basic Regulation entered into force on 1 January 2014. It contains ambitious objectives and concrete timelines to put the European Union at the forefront of global fisheries management and make European fisheries economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. However, seven years later, progress in implementing the CFP has been too slow to end overfishing, rebuild fish populations and protect marine ecosystems. For some fish stocks, no progress has been made since the CFP was reformed. The EU has failed to fulfil its legal obligation to harvest all stocks sustainably by 2020.
[1] For more aspects of the CFP pending implementation, please see the NGO policy paper “Common Fisheries Policy: Mission Not Yet Accomplished” (2021). NGOs identify nine specific challenges—overfishing, especially in the Mediterranean Sea, the landing obligation, harmful impacts of fishing, the transition to low-impact fisheries, harmful subsidies, regionalisation, the external dimension, and climate change—and propose a list of actionable solutions.