Europeche calls for balanced marine policies protecting oceans and fishers addressing spatial squeeze on fishing grounds ensuring food sovereignty
Europeche, the voice of Europe’s fishing industry, today welcomed the Implementation Dialogue on the Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive, chaired by European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis.
This significant Dialogue marks a crucial part of the European Commission’s commitment to engage stakeholders and align maritime policies with on-the-ground realities, ahead of the MSP implementation report due in March 2026.
Europeche used the opportunity to issue a stark warning regarding the escalating loss of traditional fishing grounds. This displacement is driven by an array of competing spatial pressures, with offshore wind development and marine protected areas topping the list.
“Europeche welcomes this initiative as European seas stand at a critical crossroads,” stated 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 underscored the alarming outlook for fisheries, noting, “In the UK, projections estimate that nearly 50% of the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone could be fishing-free by 2050. All indications suggest similar trends could occur across European sea basins.”
While Europeche acknowledges the necessity for effective marine protected areas and net-zero targets, the projected scale of future spatial demands is unprecedented. This poses serious risks to the viability of the fishing sector, leading to increased operational costs, heightened safety concerns, and a rise in fuel use and emissions. Ironically, this reverses the progress the fleet has made, having already reduced emissions by 52% since 1990.
Unlike farmers, fishers do not hold property rights over their productive areas, rendering them vulnerable to continuous displacement and loss of access. Exclusion from traditional fishing grounds is a very real issue, resulting in severe displacement of fishing effort and over-concentration in smaller areas.
Such overcrowding often 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, often with few or no alternatives available. “The motto ‘fish somewhere else’ simply denies the problem,” Voces emphasised.
Europeche members meeting. Photo: Europeche
Europêche’s Call to EU Policymakers
Europeche urges policymakers to leverage this Dialogue as a crucial opportunity to modernise and rebalance the MSP Directive. Key demands include:
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Treating fisheries and food sovereignty as a priority and overriding public interest, similar to how renewable energy is treated under the Nature Restoration Law.
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Ensuring mandatory early and meaningful participation of fishing stakeholders in all planning and decision-making processes.
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Applying equal environmental scrutiny across all blue economy sectors through an ecosystem-based approach.
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Integrating robust assessments of displacement, cumulative impacts, and trade-offs.
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Protecting traditional fishing grounds with robust impact assessments and safeguards.
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Applying area closures and potential fisheries exclusions on a case-by-case basis.
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Introducing gear-based buffer zones around offshore wind farms and marine protected areas to reduce socio-economic impacts on fisheries.
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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.
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Designing concrete mitigation measures and financial support tools to help fishers adapt to unavoidable displacements.
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Strengthening cross-border cooperation and a sea basin approach.
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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. This revision aims to leverage 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 a better organised sea basin approach. The Commission also intends to simplify procedures and reduce administrative burdens.
Source: Press Release