Campaigners have said that the EU is failing to enforce rules on illegal fishing, and allowing member states to conceal information that could help uncover breaches of fishing law.
The court of justice of the EU ruled on Thursday that member states could keep vital details of their implementation of fishing rules under wraps, in a blow to environmental campaigners hoping to use the information to show whether the regulations are working.
There are strong reasons to suspect that many fishing vessels are flouting restrictions meant to protect fish populations in the EU’s seas, by under-reporting their catches or by discarding fish at sea. But member states are often reluctant to enforce the rules stringently, under pressure from their fishing industries.
The campaigning organisation ClientEarth brought a legal case against the European Commission contesting its refusal to grant access to audit reports for France and Denmark, which would show whether those governments were controlling illegal fishing properly.
But the EU court found, in an appeal judgment on Thursday, that the audit reports could remain secret, which campaigners said made a mockery of the rules.
Anne Friel, a senior lawyer at ClientEarth, said: “People and NGOs are being deprived of their very basic rights – knowing whether member states are actually complying with the laws that exist to protect them and the environment, and what the commission is doing about it.”
She added: “It means that illegal fishing can remain hidden and unpunished, and civil society is prevented from effectively participating in decision-making on the common fisheries policy. Ultimately, it means that the ocean remains vulnerable to abuse.”
Illegal fishing is one of the biggest causes of overfishing around the world: one in every five fish is caught through illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing. Many countries have rules on reporting catches, and where and how fish can be caught, but the difficulty of monitoring vessels’ activities on the high seas, and an unwillingness to take on fishing lobbies, have hampered efforts to stamp out harmful practices.
The European Commission was intending to take legal action against member states that failed to enforce its ban on the wasteful practice of discarding fish at sea, but scrapped that action without a clear explanation.
Thursday’s appeal judgment marks the final stage of the attempt to gain transparency over the fishing audit reports, after ClientEarth’s case – first brought in 2021 – was first thrown out by judges last year.
Transparency is an increasing issue for environmental campaigners seeking to hold the EU, its institutions and its member states to account. The common fisheries policy determines the catch allowed for all EU registered fishing vessels each year, with quotas for key species often set above what is scientifically advised. If even these regulations, already regarded as too lax by campaigners, are not being followed, fish populations will be at greater risk.
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The common agricultural policy is also dogged by transparency issues. Even though taxpayers foot the bill for the subsidy payments offered to farmers, there is not enough information available on who receives the subsidies for campaigners and citizens to see clearly who the biggest beneficiaries are.
Friel said audit reports were essential to evaluating whether the common fisheries policy was working, but were only made accessible to a handful of officials, keeping MEPs and citizens in the dark.
Friel said: “The implementation of EU environmental laws is everyone’s business – and increasing transparency is crucial to allow the public to participate in environmental decision-making and hold the commission to account for its enforcement activities, especially when it comes to matters like fisheries – which are so difficult to monitor.”