Twelve years on: First ever assessment of EU maritime planning’s impact on fisheries

We are now counting 12 years since the EU spatial planning rules have been adopted. Today, however, the uses of the sea and maritime activities are constantly expanding, giving rise to conflicts of use that affect fisheries and aquaculture, which are losing ground and have no guaranteed place in maritime spatial planning. Today Liberals and Democrats called for a fundamental shift and the European Parliament adopted it’s first assessment of the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive from a fisheries and aquaculture perspective.

Ahead of the upcoming EU Ocean Act, we are calling for a revision of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive. The revision must ensure that maritime space planning is more coordinated and balanced, that fishing professionals and stakeholders are fully involved in planning decisions, that cross-border and macro-regional planning strategies are strengthened, and that fisheries and aquaculture have a guaranteed place in maritime space. 

This implementation report assesses the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive since 2014 from a fisheries and aquaculture perspective and identifies three core problems: implementation is fragmented across member states; fisheries have no designated space and are squeezed out by offshore energy, shipping, marine protected areas and defence operations; and planning decisions lack the harmonised data needed to protect fishing communities. Without better planning, EU food sovereignty and the viability of coastal communities are at risk. The report also flags coastal erosion and climate change as growing threats to marine resources that maritime planning must urgently address.

The adoption of the report already sends a strong signal and shapes the next discussion before the Ocean Act: plan with fisheries and aquaculture in mind and secure Europe's fishing communities and food sovereignty for generations to come.