Make Europe’s fisheries fit for the future

The EPP Group wants the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to be reformed and adapted to address current challenges such as decarbonisation and generational renewal.

Today, the European Parliament will vote on a report on the future of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The text highlights the necessity to reach a re-equilibration between the different objectives of the CFP by strengthening the CFP’s socio-economic and food security dimensions and ensuring that European fishermen remain internationally competitive.

“The Fisheries and aquaculture sectors have a strategic role in ensuring food security, the European Green Deal and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, the current CFP does not give sufficient consideration to the socio-economic and food supply aspects,” says the EPP Group MEP Gabriel Mato, who drafted the Parliament’s report. 

The report calls for an assessment and reform of the CFP where needed to adapt to the new challenges. “The fishing sector and the whole seafood value chain have gone through several unprecedented challenges since the adoption of the CFP in 2013, including Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the energy crisis. The current CFP does not provide sufficient tools to ensure the resilience and competitiveness of the sectors and, therefore, needs to be reformed to adapt to the new challenges”, states Mato.

The text also stresses the importance for the CFP of incorporating regional traditions while collaborating closely with stakeholders such as guilds and cofradias, and calls on the next European Commission to have a Commissioner dedicated exclusively to fisheries.