With the 2013 Common Fisheries Policy, Europe had committed to ensuring that, by 2020, the fishing fleets of EU member states catching seafood would do so in compliance with the thresholds that allow species to rebuild their populations, and that the seas would achieve "good environmental status", in which marine resources are accessible within sustainable limits.

The target has been missed. Recent studies – WWF International announced in a press release – have shown that, overall, fish caught within the European marine area is not being fished sustainably and that the objectives of healthy, productive and resilient European seas have not been met.

Europe's broken promises

According to the ClientEarth report published in November 2019, Europe has failed to meet its marine protection targets also due to pressure from member states that are in practice actively pushing to exceed sustainable fishing limits in the north-east Atlantic.

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) had the explicit objective of making fishing environmentally, economically and socially sustainable by 2020. Member states have manifestly failed to comply with the articles of the CFP in order to meet this objective and have not respected European environmental legislation, jeopardising the vision of seas full of life in support of a robust and sustainable blue economy.

Europe's great challenge

The European Environment Agency report of December 2019 showed that Europe is facing environmental challenges of unprecedented scale and urgency.

"In 2020, EU environment and fisheries ministers will face their greatest test ever: will they finally secure an ocean in which people and nature thrive, as envisaged by the Common Fisheries Policy? It is fundamental to the EU's credibility, especially in the context of the Green Deal, that the EU and its member states finally honour their promises," commented Anne-Cécile Dragon, head of marine and fisheries policy at WWF Europe.

The EU Council votes to extend intensive fishing

The European Council and European fisheries ministers have decided, in direct violation of EU law, to extend the overfishing of deep-sea stocks, Baltic Sea stocks and north-east Atlantic stocks beyond 2020, decisions adopted in November 2018, October 2019 and December 2019 respectively.

Time is running out

According to an assessment carried out by WWF in 2018, 74 per cent of fish and shellfish populations assessed in European seas were not in "good ecological status", while only one member state, Ireland, has made significant improvements to the sustainable management of wild-caught fish.

Hence WWF's call on the European Parliament to condemn the EU's failure to end overfishing by 2020, and its urging of the Council and the Commission to fully implement the Common Fisheries Policy.