The EU Court of Justice has ruled that key information on how EU fisheries rules are implemented by Member States can remain confidential. This ruling is the last stage of a case ClientEarth brought against the Commission for refusing to grant the NGO access to audit reports detailing failures by France and Denmark to control illegal fishing – […]
A new paper titled “Over 80% of the European Union’s marine protected area only marginally regulates human activities” has assessed how protected marine protected areas (MPAs) really are in the EU. The researchers looked at the level of protection of 4,858 EU MPAs based on the MPA Guide and found that in 2022, MPAs covered […]
The European Commission has submitted the EU’s targets for implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. They are now publicly accessible through the ’Online Reporting Tool’ of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). The EU targets cover all goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the […]
The Political guidelines for the next European Commission (2024-2029) include commitment to A European Oceans Pact which will “focus on boosting the blue economy and ensuring the good governance and sustainability of our oceans in all of their dimensions”. There is also a commitment to appoint a Fisheries and Oceans Commissioner “tasked with ensuring the […]
The European Commission launched infringement proceedings against five EU Member States for failure to control and enforce the landing obligation – notably against France, Spain (INF_21_4681), the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland (INF_21_5342) noting that there is a need to help ensure the end of the “extensive, illegal and undocumented discarding of catches in several sea […]
Ireland’s City of Cork will host the 2025 European Maritime Day – the EU’s flagship annual maritime event. Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, made the announcement, saying that it was fitting that the event would take place in Cork which has a long maritime history. Established in 2008, European Maritime Day […]
The European Union will demand access to British fishing waters in return for a closer relationship with Britain, The Telegraph understands. Sir Keir Starmer is pursuing a reset to European relations and last week hosted a summit for European Political Community (EPC) leaders at Blenheim Palace. The Telegraph reports that the EU is said to […]
The European Parliamentary Research Service has released a comprehensive study titled “Exploring the viability of innovative fishing technologies as an alternative to bottom trawling in European marine protected areas.” Fisheries in Europe’s marine environment use different types of mobile and static fishing gears that come into contact with the seabed, including mobile bottom-contacting gears (MBCGs) […]