France, Germany and Italy failing to cease damaging fishing: NGOs

BRUSSELS: 5 environmental organisations accused France, Germany and Italy on Tuesday of failing to cease damaging fishing, together with backside trawling, in protected areas in a authorized criticism to the European Fee.
Of their criticism, the organisations together with the Environmental Justice Basis and ClientEarth accused the three nations of “significantly and systemically failing to guard susceptible marine ecosystems in violation of EU legislation“.
Deep-sea backside trawling — the place a weighted internet is dragged alongside the seabed, which critics say significantly damages ecosystems within the course of — dangers wiping out ocean wildlife and hurting the way forward for fishing communities in Europe, the teams stated.
They discovered that backside trawling at present came about in 77 per cent of France’s protected marine Natura 2000 websites, in 85 per cent of Germany’s and in 44 per cent of Italy’s.
“The joint criticism focuses on 15 marine Natura 2000 websites the place intensive proof exhibits backside trawling continues unchecked on an industrial scale, damaging delicate habitats reminiscent of reefs, seagrass beds, and sandbanks,” the organisations stated.
There’s ongoing nationwide authorized motion towards the actions in France and Germany, and ClientEarth has taken related motion within the Netherlands and Spain.
Underneath EU legislation, the fee can assess the criticism and determine both to do nothing or open infringement proceedings towards the member states involved.
Though unlikely to result in robust EU motion, the criticism raises the problem forward of subsequent month’s United Nations Ocean Convention in Good, southeastern France.
“The criticism on the European degree is a prolonged process, however it’s a strategic lever to point out the size of the issue,” stated Marie Colombier of the Environmental Justice Basis.
The EU has known as on member states to section out backside fishing in all protected marine areas by 2030. Europeche, which represents the pursuits of the EU fishing trade, stated it “regrets” the criticism.
“The usage of backside trawls in marine protected areas (MPAs) should be assessed by way of site-specific influence research,” it stated in a press release.
“Imposing the identical bans in every single place could be tantamount to denying the complexity and variety of marine protected areas,” it stated, and “would even have main penalties for our self-sufficiency and meals sovereignty in Europe and France”.