Two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have dubbed the European Commission’s action plans for biodiversity and climate change in ocean and fisheries as “inaction plans”.

NGOs Birdwatch Ireland and Our Fish were responding to the European Commission’s publication of four EU action plans related to the marine, born out of the European Green Deal.

Our Fish programme director Rebecca Hubbard said they “fail to jump the chasm from lofty rhetoric to a roadmap for meaningful action that would both transform European fisheries and address the planetary crisis”.

“While we welcome the European Commission’s Marine Action Plan’s proposal to map seabed carbon and the impact of bottom trawling in EU waters, the proposal is too little, too slow and fails to address extraction of fish and CO2 emissions”, said Hubbard.

“The EU must end the ploughing up of seabed carbon stores, the excessive removal of the ocean’s carbon engineers such as fish, and the CO2 emissions from vessels burning subsidised fossil fuel. These practices are neither good fisheries management nor good carbon management and the Commission’s Marine Action Plan fails to put this right within the urgent timeframes we need,” she said.

“More positively, in its report on the Evaluation of the functioning of the Common Fisheries Policy, the European Commission has taken important steps forward in committing to develop an economic tool that properly values natural marine ecosystem services to society and developing a guide for EU member states to utilise environmental, social and economic criteria for the allocation of fishing quota,” she said.

“By allocating access to fish based on environmental or social performance criteria, the EU can drive the transition to a low-carbon, low-impact fishing fleet that restores the ocean and delivers thriving fisheries,” she said.

“However, the proposed EU Action Plan: Energy transition of EU fisheries and aquaculture appears to be more of a discussion paper than an ‘action plan’,” she continued.

“ An economic incentive is clearly needed to drive the decarbonisation of the EU fishing sector, along with a financial penalty for failing to implement it,” Hubbard said.

“ In addition, the Energy Taxation Directive must eliminate all fuel subsidies, while the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) must be updated to require that at least 35% of any support goes to transitioning to low impact and low carbon fishing - anything less is gross hypocrisy,”she said.

“This Commission and European Parliament have just over a year left in their mandates, yet the climate and biodiversity emergency does not stand for election or wait for endorsement,” she said.

“Our Fish is calling on the European Commission and EU member state governments to ditch the rhetoric and take definitive action by immediately beginning to implement and strengthen the measures described in these proposals and for members of the European Parliament to support them in doing so,” Hubbard said.

Earlier this month, the Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), of which the Irish Islands Marine Resources Organisation is a member, renewed its call for the implementation of Article 17.

Article 17 of the Basic Regulation (EU Regulation 1380/2013) requires that member states allocate fishing opportunities using “objective and transparent criteria, including those of an environmental, social and economic nature”.

It also calls on member states “to endeavour to provide incentives to fishing vessels deploying selective fishing gear or using fishing techniques with reduced environmental impact”.”

LIFE is calling for a comprehensive and all-round response to implementing Article 17, calling on member state governments, the European Commission, and members of the European Parliament to step up to their role in addressing the lack of action on Article 17.

Birdwatch Ireland marine policy and advocacy officer Sinead Loughran said, “there is just over a year left in the current Commission and European Parliament term, but the climate and biodiversity emergencies demand immediate action and continue unabated regardless of our political cycles”.

“We need immediate action from our Government and the Commission in beginning to implement and strengthen the measures described in the package of proposals published today, and members of the European Parliament need to support them in doing so,”she said.

“ These legal obligations already exist, and the implementation cannot wait any longer if we are to ensure a healthy ocean for biodiversity, for climate and for healthy, sustainable fisheries,” Loughran said.

In May 2021, sixteen European NGOs published a detailed shadow action plan * to provide key recommendations for the European Commission’s Action plan to conserve fisheries resources and protect marine ecosystems.

* Joint NGO Shadow Action Plan: Realising the Ambition of the EU Biodiversity Strategy in the Ocean: Key recommendations for the European Commission’s Action plan to conserve fisheries resources and protect marine ecosystems