EU Commission: Progress on recovery of fish populations, but more efforts needed

Why is the Commission reporting on fisheries today?

In line with Regulation 1380/2013 on the common fisheries policy (CFP), the Commission releases a Communication that provides updates on the state of the EU fisheries. This initiates a public consultation on the current situation and the future directions of fishing opportunities for 2025.

Fishing opportunities, or total allowable catches (TACs) – the catch limits for certain fish stocks – are set for most of Europe’s commercial fish stocks to keep their status healthy or to help them regenerate, while ensuring that EU fishers have healthy fish stocks to rely on for their livelihood. Under the common fisheries policy, EU Member States are legally bound to manage fish stocks at sustainable levels.

Which are the key indicators of this assessment?

The EU is now in the 11th year of the implementation of the common fisheries policy (CFP) following its reform in 2013. The Communication assesses the progress made towards the achievement of the CFP’s main objectives: preserving fish stocks, protecting the marine environment and ensuring the economic viability of the EU fishing fleet.

Today’s Communication reviews in particular:

• the progress made in bringing the exploitation of fish stocks in line with sustainability objectives;
• the balance between the capacity of the EU fleet and the available fishing opportunities;
• the social and economic performance of the EU fleet;
• and the implementation of the landing obligation, requiring all catches to be taken to port.

How is the EU fleet performing economically?

Fuel costs are one of the major cost items for the EU fishing fleet and continue to have a high impact on its socio-economic performance, particularly for fleet segments using energy-intensive gears.

Socio-economic performance is not even across all fleet segments. There are differences across fleet segments and fishing regions, depending on the state of the fish stocks at regional level and the different levels of energy efficiency across the fleet segments:

• Fleet segments that depend on stocks exploited sustainably and that increased their energy efficiency – or reduced their fuel intensity – tend to be more resilient and generate higher salaries for their fishers.
• On the other hand, fleet segments that depend on overexploited stocks and have high fuel consumption usually show poorer economic performance and lower salaries.

The Commission adopted in February 2023 a Communication on facilitating the energy transition of the EU’s fisheries and aquaculture sector to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. The Commission proposed actions to support the sector in accelerating its energy transition, by improving fuel efficiency and switching to renewable, low-carbon power sources.

In June 2023, the Commission launched the Energy Transition Partnership for EU Fisheries and Aquaculture, bringing together all stakeholders in fisheries, aquaculture, shipbuilding, ports, energy, NGOs, national and regional authorities. The partnership’s aim is to collectively address the challenges of the sector’s energy transition and find solutions through workshops and exchanges of knowledge and information.

The Commission also published a guide on funding summarising the current EU funding and financial instruments that can be used to support the energy transition in the sector.

Additionally, in February 2024, the Commission launched a call for proposals of €2.2 million to develop a demonstrator fishing vessel with alternative propulsion technologies and innovative energy solutions.

What is the state of play of fish stocks in the various sea basins?

In the North-East Atlantic area, the move towards sustainability is both widespread and visible. While in the early 2000s most stocks were overfished, overall stocks are now, on average, fished sustainably. This is tangible and important progress towards achieving the objectives of the common fisheries policy. However, many Baltic Sea fisheries are facing severe challenges.

In the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, most stocks are still overfished, but there is a clear positive trend towards less overfishing. The fishing mortality rate has fallen the most in the Eastern Mediterranean followed by the Black Sea and the Western Mediterranean. There has been little change in the Central Mediterranean, where the fishing mortality rate has fallen, and the biomass of fish stock is increasing. This helps improve catches and the profitability of fisheries and increases their carbon-efficiency – in terms of kilogram of fish caught per kilogram of carbon emitted. More efforts are still required to achieve sustainability in both sea basins.

What measures is the Commission taking to address the situation in the Baltic Sea?

The dire situation in the Baltic Sea and its rivers continues to affect fish stocks and their development. There are various pressures in the Baltic Sea today, which have led to the degradation of its biodiversity, such as high pollution from nutrient inputs and persistently high levels of contaminants. Furthermore, the scientific advice also recognises the impact of underreporting and overfishing, without being able to quantify it. These stressors, in part, stem from failures to implement EU legislation.

The Baltic Sea multiannual fisheries management plan (MAP) uses all tools of fisheries policy – suspended target fisheries for four out of ten fish stocks, setting TACs below maximum advised level, closures of certain areas where fish is spawning and limiting recreational fishing – to help fish stocks recover. However, unless Member States fully apply, implement, and enforce the entire relevant EU legislation, sectorial fisheries policy tools will not be enough to enable all fish stocks to recover.

Following a first edition in 2020, the second “Our Baltic” Conference took place on 29 September 2023, to discuss with the Baltic Sea Member States about achievements and challenges moving forward.

What measures is the Commission taking to address the situation in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas?

The Commission encourages Member States to continue their efforts to achieve the objectives of the Western Mediterranean MAP and to develop accompanying actions under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF). The Commission’s fishing opportunities proposal will continue implementing the Western Mediterranean MAP. The Commission will report on the functioning of this plan by July 2024.

Management of shared stocks is also necessary to secure a level playing field between all fishers in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The Commission and Member States will therefore continue working in the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean and will include the results in the fishing opportunities proposal for 2025.

What is the state of play of the implementation of the landing obligation?

When it comes to the landing obligation, now in the sixth year of its full application, compliance and control remain weak. The Commission’s audits and the initiatives of the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) indicate a general lack of compliance.

Part of the solution must come from new and innovative control tools, notably the use of remote electronic monitoring (REM). This has been agreed with the Parliament and Council in the context of the revised fisheries control system. The Commission also encourages Member States to improve the use of available EMFAF funds to improve selectivity and reduce unwanted catches.

Weak compliance, undocumented discarding and misreporting of catches undermines the accuracy of catch data – landings, unwanted catches, and discards and reporting –, which underpin the quality of scientific advice. The Commission will work with Member States’ regional groups and the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) on a review of the exemptions to the landing obligation to improve data accuracy.

How has the withdrawal of the UK from the EU affected setting TACs with third countries?

Since the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the EU does not exclusively decide on the Atlantic and North Sea stocks. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the UK allows for consultations about TAC levels to find agreements. The conclusions of other consultations with third countries in the Northeast Atlantic – EU-UK-Norway, EU-Norway, other coastal States – are also taken into account when fixing TACs for shared stocks.

The TCA provides a solid basis for the sustainable management and exploitation of shared fish stocks. The EU continues defending its goals in annual consultations on fishing opportunities through the EU-UK Specialised Committee on Fisheries (SCF) established under the TCA.

Consultations with the UK will take place between October and December, aiming for a timely conclusion ahead of the December Council. By then, the Commission aims to propose that the results are included into the 2025 TAC Regulation. If there is no agreement by 20 December, the TCA provides for each party to set provisional TACs applying from 1 January at the level advised by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), with TACs for special stocks set in accordance with guidelines. The SCF is currently developing these guidelines.

What are the fishing opportunities? How are they set?

Every year, the Commission proposes total allowable catches (TACs), which are the catch limits for fish stocks. TACs apply to most commercial stocks in northern EU waters and to tuna and swordfish in the Mediterranean Sea.

Independent scientific advice and socio-economic analysis are the basis for the Commission to propose amounts.

Later in the year, the Council, composed of the fisheries ministers of Member States, makes a final decision concerning the TACs. Once TACs are fixed, the amounts are split between Member States according to pre-agreed shares into national quotas. Member States manage these and allocate them among their fishing industry, as a possibility to catch and land a certain amount of fish during the calendar year (see infographic “Setting catch limits and quotas”).

For fishing opportunities agreed under the Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs), the Commission negotiates conservation and management measures, including fishing opportunities. Fishing opportunities regulations incorporate the measures adopted by RFMOs and those concerning the EU. The timeline for this incorporation follows the calendar of the meetings of these organisations.

Where does the scientific advice come from?

Fishers and national administrations provide data on their catches and fishing activity, allowing fisheries scientists to assess the state of the stocks. The more accurate and complete those data are, the more robust the scientific assessment will be. Scientists also use research vessels to sample the amounts of fish in the sea in different sites and at different times of year, independently from the fishing activity. They determine the state of the stock and then calculate how much should be fished the following year to ensure sustainability.

This work is done through the ICES, an independent body that provides the Commission with the scientific advice. In certain cases, as for the Mediterranean, other advisory bodies such as the STECF are consulted.

At international level, the process is similar: RFMOs use data from scientific bodies to provide the necessary scientific advice.

More information

• Press release
• Communication ‘Sustainable fishing in the EU: state of play and orientations for 2025′
• Common Fisheries Policy