The Common Fisheries Policy: An Exercise in Marine Exploitation

Summary:

This article considers how the Common Fisheries Policy obstructs the broader objectives of EU environmental protection and sustainability that the citizens of Europe deserve.

Following population growth, the oceans are expected to make a significant contribution to food security for over 9 billion people by 2050.1 Aside from nutrition, the seas deliver many other ecosystem benefits, including climate stabilization, molecules used in medicine and engineering, the protection of coastlines through ecosystems, such as corals and mangrove, and they act as a sink for 90 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, its vital importance is often overlooked. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change notes only ‘the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including oceans, and the protection of biodiversity’, making no further reference to marine areas. Under the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, ecosystem protection through ecosystem-based management is secondary to the primary objective of sustainable exploitation of the resource, which applies the internationally recognized precautionary approach.