‘Europeche welcomes this initiative as European seas stand at a critical crossroads,’ said Daniel Voces, Managing Director of Europeche. ‘While the demand for marine space from energy, minerals, transport, tourism, and conservation grows rapidly, fishing is the only shrinking blue economy sector. Despite the enormous value in producing low carbon, healthy and sustainable food, fishing is increasingly pushed aside by spatial planning that lacks effective safeguards.’

Voces highlighted the alarming outlook for fisheries, noting, ‘In the UK, projections estimate that nearly 50% of the UK’s EEZ could be fishing-free by 2050. All indicates that with similar trends can happen across European sea basins.’ While Europeche recognised the need for effective marine protected areas and net-zero targets, the projected scale of future spatial demands is unprecedented—and poses serious risks to the viability of the fishing sector. This spatial squeeze increases operational costs, raises safety concerns, drives up fuel use and emissions. ‘Ironically, this reverses the progress our fleet has made—already reducing emissions by 52% since 1990.’

Unlike farmers, fishers do not hold property rights over their productive areas, leaving them vulnerable to continuous displacement and loss of access. Exclusion from traditional fishing grounds is very real and results in severe displacement of fishing effort, causing over-concentration in smaller areas. Such overcrowding leads to gear conflicts, difficulties in catch composition and increased pressure on local fish populations. Small-scale fleets with limited operational ranges face even greater impacts, with limited or none alternatives available. ‘The motto ‘fish somewhere else’ simply denies the problem,’ Voces emphasized.

Europêche’s call to EU policymakers

Europeche urges policymakers to take this Dialogue as a crucial opportunity to modernise and rebalance the MSP Directive. Key demands include:

• Treating fishreries and food sovereignty as a priority and overriding public interest, similar to renewable energy under the Nature Restoration Law.
• Ensuring mandatory early and meaningful participation of fishing stakeholders in all planning and decision-making processes.
• Applying equal environmental scrutiny across all blue economy sectors through an ecosystem-based approach.
• Integrate robust assessments of displacement, cumulative impacts and trade-offs.
• Protecting traditional fishing grounds with robust impact assessments and safeguards.
• Applying area closures and potential fisheries exclusions on a case-by-case basis
• Introducing gear-based buffer zones around offshore wind farms and marine protected areas to reduce socio-economic impacts on fisheries.
• Promoting genuine co-existence and co-location of offshore wind, conservation and fishing by aligning regulations, removing barriers, advancing blue skills development and fostering technology collaboration.
• Designing concrete mitigation measures and financial support tools to help fishers adapt to unavoidable displacements.
• Strengthening cross-border cooperation and sea basin approach.
• Prioritising less space-intensive technologies, such as tidal and wave energy, which offer lower environmental impacts and greater compatibility with fisheries.

‘Fishing is not an obstacle to the EU’s strategic goals—it is an ally,’ Voces stressed. ‘We must replace today’s trajectory of exclusion with a new model of positive coexistence.’

Next steps

As announced in the EU Ocean Pact, the Commission plans to revise the existing MSP Directive by 2027 and leverages the ocean’s potential for Europe’s resilience, food sovereignty, energy supply, security and competitiveness. It will also reinforce cooperation with international initiatives, notably through increased cross-sectoral coordination and through a better organised sea basin approach. The Commission also intends to simplify procedures and reduce administrative burdens.

Press Contact:

Rosalie Tukker, Senior Policy Advisor of Europêche | Email: rosalie.tukker@europeche.org │ Phone: +32 489 26 81 07

EP Press Release – Maritime Spatial Planning

The investment made in recent decades to make fishing operations socially, economically and ecologically sustainable is a success story lead by the European Union. EU fishermen alert that this investment and the long term efforts of the fisheries involved are now under a direct threat, and in some cases already damaged by the uncontrolled development of offshore wind capacity. Namely, sustainable fishing activities require space as does the development and operation of offshore wind farms.

The EU therefore adopted back in 2014 a Directive for maritime and coastal spatial planning urging Member States to ensure that human activities at sea take place in an efficient, safe and sustainable way and reduce users’ conflicts. Nonetheless, the climate mitigation targets are vast, with the EU’s Paris Agreement nationally determined contribution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990. For this purpose, some countries are pushing to increase offshore wind power 40-fold by 2030 in Europe.

Therefore, the question ‘Can fisheries and wind farms co-exist?’ is a relevant but complex question which will become more pressing in the near future. As expressed by the host, Mr Peter van Dalen, this event was the kick start of a longer discussion. To trigger scientific based discussion, Mr Peter van Dalen was also recently appointed as Rapporteur of the Initiative report on the impact on Fisheries of Offshore Wind Farms (2019/2158(INI)) which is being prepared in 2020. Europêche fully endorses this Parliamentary Report as it provides the opportunity to assess existing gaps in the knowledge on the impact of wind farms on fisheries and biodiversity. As also pointed out by the scientists during the seminar, more research needs to take place as there is uncertainty surrounding the possible negative consequences and on how long it will take the ecosystem to recover.

According to Mr Job Schot, a Dutch fisherman: “We cannot see the benefits of wind farms at sea as we already see indicators of fish decline in areas where wind parks are built. Besides, the parks are always built on rich fishing grounds. It is clear that both activities cannot co-exist in the same area, but as fishermen, we do want to continue our livelihoods and keep on fishing for generations to come.” Mr Olivier Becquet, a French fisherman added: “The current expansion of offshore wind parks should not continue before research has come up with answers to the many knowledge gaps. Offshore wind is not climate neutral and poses risks to many species. We need to set our priorities on living and eating, as energy is comfort.”

Following the aforementioned, EU fishermen call on the European Parliament to support their call for a freeze on the development of offshore wind farm capacity, and prevent its extension into new areas, particularly in sustainably managed fishing grounds.

[1] And co-organised by Europêche, VisNed, EMK and Collectif Pêcheurs Artisans.

Press contacts:

Rosalie Tukker, Policy Advisor of Europêche: +32 2 230 48 48  rosalie.tukker@europeche.org

EP Press Release – Fisheries and Offshore Wind Farms