Unsurprisingly, restrictions on fishing activities were the most contentious issue in the European Parliament during a plenary debate on Wednesday 2 April on expectations for the future European ‘Oceans Pact’.
The European Commission plans to adopt this ‘roadmap’ on 4 June, just before the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), to be held in Nice, France, from 9 to 13 June (see EUROPE 13611/6).
Gabriel Mato (EPP, Spanish) stressed that the Pact should not lead to more restrictions on the fishing industry, on the pretext of protecting the environment.
For Antônio Tânger Corrêa (PfE, Portuguese), “ocean pacts are not the way to solve our problems. We’ve had enough of words, we need action”. He blamed the European Commission for the destruction of the fishing fleet.
Isabelle Le Callennec (EPP, French) said that it was possible to reconcile sustainable fishing activities with safeguarding biodiversity, as demonstrated by the Iroise Marine Park, which is a marine protected area. She welcomed Commissioner Costas Kadis’ ‘case-by-case’ approach to marine protected areas.
Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, Czech) advocated intensive monitoring of imports from third countries “so that the same conditions are applied to them”.
A binding pact? Isabella Lövin (Greens/EFA, Swedish) said that the pact might be “our last chance to save the ocean”. She criticised “the huge industrial trawlers that empty our seas not for human consumption, but to produce fishmeal for animals”. Like Nikólaos Farantoúris (The Left, Greek), she called for a legally binding governance framework to ensure compliance with the objectives set out in the legislation (Common Fisheries Policy, Marine Strategy Framework Directive).
The European Commissioner for the Oceans, Costas Kadis, indicated that discussions were underway within the Commission’s services, including the Legal Service, on “the most appropriate and adequate mechanism to guarantee the implementation of the Oceans Pact”.
For Emma Fourreau (The Left, French) French President Emmanuel Macron’s objectives for UNOC3 are “sorely lacking in ambition”. She called for a worldwide application of the International Treaty for the Protection of the High Seas and Marine Biodiversity (BBNJ) and compliance with the international moratorium on seabed mining. As far as marine protected areas are concerned, the objective of protecting 30% of European waters must be respected, she stressed.
For Adam Szłapka, Poland’s Minister for European Affairs, the European ‘Oceans Pact’ should propose a comprehensive approach to ocean governance, encompassing actions to “protect biodiversity, stimulate the EU’s sustainable blue economy and consolidate knowledge” about the sea. In his view, the European Pact needs to play an important role in “strengthening our security, be it energy, maritime or food security”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)