While France is preparing to host the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025, environmental NGOs Bloom and ClientEarth announced on Tuesday, 28 May, that they were bringing the French government before the Court of Justice of the EU in an effort to get the French government to ban bottom trawling in marine protected areas in the Mediterranean.
In 2006, the European Union adopted a regulation aiming to ban fishing methods that are likely to damage marine habitats. This regulation bans bottom trawling, pelagic trawling, purse seining, and dredging in all marine protected areas that are home to certain vulnerable habitats such as seagrass meadows and coral reefs (see EUROPE 13392/17).
According to the NGOs, France refuses to enforce these bans and continues to authorise the most destructive practices in marine protected areas through various decrees and derogations.
With only 0.09% of French Mediterranean waters actually protected from any form of extractive activity, these marine protected areas are ineffective, according to Bloom. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)