EU: Fisheries and maritime affairs
Contents
1.Why we need a maritime affairs and fisheries policy
2.How the EU goes about it
3.What the EU does
4.What’s next — reform
5.Find out more
We all make use of our seas and oceans. The seas have immense intrinsic value. Unlike our cities, they provide us with a free horizon, we enjoy clean coastal and marine environments and the wildlife they support and we benefit from their role in keeping our climate stable.
The seas also have a crucial economic role to play.Today, 3 % to 5 % of the EU’s GDP comes from themaritime sector, employing around 5.6 million people and generating € 495 billion for the European economy.Some 90 % of foreign trade and 43 % of intra-EU trade take place via maritime routes. European shipbuilding accounts for 10 % of global production — and it is number one in the world for value of production. Almost
100 000 boats are in operation around Europe, either in fisheries or aquaculture. And alongside these traditional industries, other more recent activities are developing fast, such as mineral extraction and wind farms.
However, the unsustainable use of our seas threatens the fragile balance of marine ecosystems, human activities that depend on the sea suffer from damaged ecosystems and the competition for the use of sea space is becoming increasingly fierce.
The European Commission works to protect and develop the rich maritime heritage of Europe, while ensuring that our exploitation of marine resources remains sustainable.
This involves formulating, developing and implementing the common fisheries policy — the cornerstone of our actions for a sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources — and promoting an integrated approach to all maritime policies.
In addition, our maritime policy seeks to respond coherently to the multitude of challenges that European seas face today: from pollution to environment protection, from coastal development to job creation and from border control to surveillance. It facilitates the cooperation of all maritime players across sectors and across borders for an environmentally sound development of the European maritime economy — the premise being that Europe’s seas and oceans can be a rich source of innovation, growth and employment, if used sustainably.
