Despite its environmental and fisheries policies, through which it has committed itself to protecting the marine environment, the EU has failed to restore marine waters to good environmental status or to bring fishing to sustainable levels in all European seas, according to a harsh report published by the Court of Auditors on Thursday 26 November. Yet these were the targets for 2020.
According to the Court, the EU legislative framework is too superficial to restore the seas to a good environmental state and EU funds rarely finance the conservation of marine species and habitats. The auditors found that the more than 3,000 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Natura 2000 network (established under the Habitats and Birds Directives) were a weak protection and that overfishing continued, particularly in the Mediterranean.
The audit covered the period from 2008, when the Marine Strategy Framework Directive was adopted, to March 2020, focusing on the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian coasts, Macaronesia and the Western Mediterranean. The auditors visited four Member States - Spain, France, Italy and Portugal - bordering these maritime areas.
With regard to environmental policy, the auditors consider that the network of MPAs is not representative of the diversity of the EU seas and sometimes offers little protection. A finding that overlaps with that of the European Environment Agency (EEA), according to which less than 1% of European MPAs can be considered as marine reserves offering full protection, the Court points out.
In addition, the regulatory instruments that were supposed to link the EU marine biodiversity policy with the Common Fisheries Policy have not yet produced results.
The Common Fisheries Policy, on the other hand, has failed to halt the loss of marine biodiversity.
While the state of fish stocks has improved in the Atlantic, no progress has been made in the overfished Mediterranean Sea. Fishing remains at levels more than twice the sustainable levels.
The auditors noted that the four Member States visited used only 6% of the funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to support measures directly related to conservation.
Recommendations. To remedy these weaknesses, the Court of Auditors recommends that the European Commission should cooperate with the Member States to: - identify, by 2022, the regulatory and administrative changes needed to protect sensitive species and habitats; - strengthen protection measures in the Mediterranean by 2023 at the latest; - develop the potential for EU funding.
To read the report: https://bit.ly/33idxue (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)