The European Commission’s evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) confirms what the industry has for years been warning about – that the CFP has not delivered on its socio-economic sustainability objectives despite a fleet compliant with high environmental standards.
According to European industry body Europêche, promises have not been kept as despite cutting activity by an average of 50% in EU waters, the EU fleet has not seen the expected increase in quotas, landings, employment or profitability.
After two years of reflection and consultation, the industry had expected to see some concrete solutions. Instead, Europêche states that the evaluation largely restates well-known challenges, providing an incomplete diagnosis of a sector under mounting pressure rather than a clear path to reverse its rapid decline. If anything, the report points toward further fleet reduction as the primary remedy.
‘This evaluation confirms our concerns but stops short of addressing the root causes,’ said Europêche president Javier Garat.
‘After years of analysis, the sector expected solutions – what we see instead is a description of a fleet that is steadily losing ground, both within the EU and globally, increasingly replaced by foreign fleets and imports. As a result, Europe is losing fisheries strategic influence and autonomy.’
He pointed out that while the evaluation acknowledges significant reductions in fishing pressure across EU seas, it also highlights slow fish stock recovery, declining economic performance, and persistent structural challenges for the EU fleet.
Europêche voices concern that the analysis places predominant emphasis on external drivers – such as climate change, geopolitical developments and market volatility – while giving limited or no consideration to how policy design, regulatory choices and negotiation outcomes with non-EU countries have also directly influenced current results. Europêche cites the example of the landing obligation which created choke species situations, early fishery closures, and increased costs, without delivering the expected improvements in selectivity, despite industry investment in new technologies.
‘This reinforces long-standing concerns from the sector that some CFP rules are unrealistic, unworkable and insufficiently adapted to the realities of mixed fisheries. In addition, spatial closures and environmental regulations have significantly reduced access to fishing grounds and displaced fishing activity, increasing operational costs without the expected increases in fish populations,’ Europêche states, adding that the evaluation confirms a worrying trend: the EU fishing fleet continues to shrink, with declining employment, an ageing workforce and fleet, and increasing geopolitical pressures. This trend has accelerated over the past two years, reaching a critical point.
‘What is missing is a genuine reflection by the European Commission on its own policy and performance and whether the decisions taken have delivered the expected results. Also, since the last CFP reform fishers have faced an increasingly complex and burdensome regulatory framework, often built on mistrust, which now requires urgent simplification,’ Javier Garat said, commenting that European fishers have delivered strong environmental progress under one of the world’s most stringent frameworks.
More than sixty Atlantic stocks are fished at maximum sustainable yield, compared to just five in 2009. According to FAO, 75.8% of assessed stocks in the Northeast Atlantic are biologically sustainable, rising to 86.6% when weighted by landings. ‘Yet, this progress is not translating into higher yields or production.
Market indicators further confirm the structural weakening of EU seafood autonomy. The latest European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA) report shows EU landings at historically low levels, with further deterioration expected,’ Javier Garat said.
Europêche has told the European Commission, Member States and the European Parliament of the need to move beyond diagnosis and take immediate corrective action through a targeted revision of the CFP, focusing on rebalancing the three pillars of sustainability – environmental, economic and social, revising ineffective policies, including the landing obligation, and updating fleet management rules and advancing a realistic energy transition for the sector.
The industry also wants to see reducing regulatory burden and complexity addresses, as this currently undermines competitiveness and investment, while there is a need for a level playing field with international competitors and imports, and fleet viability and generational renewal is becoming an increasingly pressing issue.
‘A targeted, Omnibus-style revision is urgently needed to address inconsistencies extending beyond the CFP basic regulation – including multiannual plans, the Control Regulation, the current fisheries fund, and the deep-sea access framework – to correct mistakes, simplify, reduce bureaucracy and provide immediate relief to the sector,’ Europêchhe states.
‘The CFP evaluation should mark a turning point. We are calling on policymakers to acknowledge that the current trajectory is unsustainable and to take decisive, corrective action without delay.’
