Green groups form legal alliance to end trawling in EU protected seas

The commission’s own data show 79 percent of the coastal seabed is physically disturbed, mostly by bottom trawling

Economy

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By Wester van Gaal,
Amsterdam
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Eleven environmental organisations have banded together to push for legal action against EU governments over destructive fishing in Europe’s marine protected areas. 

On paper these zones are meant to shield sea life from exactly this practice, but in practice rules are often ignored. 

The alliance, whose members include ClientEarth, Oceana, Seas At Risk, Blue Marine Foundation and Germany’s BUND, now plans to push the EU Commission to open infringement proceedings against non-compliant governments.

“By connecting national legal action into a single, coordinated European strategy, the coalition is building a wave of accountability that no government can ignore,” the group said in a statement on Monday (6 July), also saying that the rules exist to protect Europe’s sea “in practice, not just on paper.”

The problem, they say, is lax enforcement, not a lack of rules. “The EU has some of the strictest nature laws in the world,” the coalition members stated. 

But bottom trawling, where heavy nets are dragged across the seabed, is still permitted in many of the bloc’s protected waters.

A year ago several of the group’s members filed two formal complaints with the commission against France, Germany, Italy and Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain for continuing to allow the practice in protected Natura 2000 sites.

“The EU is currently giving carte blanche to national fleets to take a wrecking ball to it day-after-day,” said ClientEarth ocean lawyer John Condon. 

But the commission has yet to act on those complaints. This time around, the coalition tailored their pitch to fit in the current political mood in Brussels where simplification and cutting red tape has become a priority.

A blanket ban on bottom trawling in all protected areas would actually be simpler, and "a clear and straightforward rule for all EU fishers" which would help reduce monitoring and enforcement costs, the environmental group argued. 

The commission is currently evaluating the Birds and Habitats Directives, the two pillars of EU nature law, but the campaigners fear the review could open the door to weakening them. 

The environmental campaigners point to a string of recent court victories in the Netherlands, and France among other places, as proof that legal action works. 

A Dutch court for example recently ruled against unpermitted bottom trawling in the Dogger Bank, a most ecologically important sandbank, also known as ‘the nursery of the North Sea’. 

"All eyes are now on EU policymakers to take heed of these rulings," the coalition said. 

93 percent under pressure

The EU has pledged to protect at least 30 percent of its seas by 2030 under its own biodiversity strategy and the global Kunming-Montreal framework.

Yet around 93 percent of Europe's marine ecosystems are affected by multiple human pressures, the European Environment Agency (EEA) found. 

And the commission's own data show 79 percent of the coastal seabed is physically disturbed, mostly by bottom trawling.

The green coalition's first year will focus on advancing the pending legal cases and building ties between lawyers, scientists and civil society groups across the bloc to launch new ones.

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The commission's own data show 79 percent of the coastal seabed is physically disturbed, mostly by bottom trawling

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Author Bio

Wester van Gaal is our economics editor. He joined EUobserver in September 2021. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Motherboard, Vice Media’s technology and science website, and worked as a climate economy journalist for The Correspondent. He is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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