Debate: Protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries - Agreement of the IGC on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
Date: THURSDAY, 11 MAY 2023
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

We need to face these responsibilities collectively because fishers and sustainable fishing are at the core of food security, as is the state of the ocean and the life it harbours. Meeting these challenges is not going to be easy. There will have to be important changes which naturally brings uncertainty and fears. And these changes require a collective effort of various industries and various actors. It is our task as the executive and legislative bodies of the Union to meet the challenges of ensuring sustainability of the environment of marine food production and society. It is our task to ensure that changes are brought in gradually without incurring excessive hardship and that they are brought in fairly with full transparency and wide consultation. Effecting real change to bring greater protection to the marine environment and moving away from fossil fuels as the main energy source require huge endeavours: endeavours by the fishing industry, like by all other sectors in Europe. To make sure that also next generations of fishermen and women will be also able to fish, we need to continue our efforts to lower the impact of fishing on the marine environment in order to stop losing biodiversity, marine habitats and parts of ecosystems. Biodiversity loss and the extinction of species are not events that are happening far away from our waters or in the far future. No: they are happening in our waters and right now. The Commission’s communication on the marine action plan is just one part of the Fisheries and Oceans Package which the Commission has adopted earlier this year to address the main challenges of Europe’s fishers today. The dependency on fossil fuels, the continuous degradation of marine ecosystems, the need to ensure a level playing field within the fisheries sector – within the EU and with non-EU countries – and last but not least, the generational renewal. The marine action plan is aimed at better implementing our commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, our biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the EU nature and marine strategy framework directives. Its goal is to protect and rebuild ecosystems for resilient fisheries in the very interests of our fishermen and women whose well-being depends on healthy seas. It is our aim to ensure that the marine ecosystems can continue to provide services and goods to our fishers, to coastal communities, and to humanity at large. And all this should be done via the regional approach under the common fisheries policy and under shared competence under environmental legislation, Member States are invited to consult stakeholders and initiate measures at national and regional level to reduce impacts on ecosystems, making sure that our marine protected areas are effectively protected from the impact of damaging fishing gears, and complement this with measures to avoid or reduce bycatch of sensitive species and avoid catching undersized fish. The measures we propose allow for marine protected areas with effective rules for conservation, adapt fishing practices and gears, which let the most sensitive species escape and restrict damage to the seabed in the most vulnerable areas. This should result in improved condition and resilience of marine ecosystems and of fisheries which rely on them, as well as in lower carbon emissions. When biodiversity begins to recover fisheries also benefit from it. The transition does not come for free, but support from EU funds is available. Funding for research, development and adaptation of vessels, allowing them to fish with lower impacts on marine ecosystems. Let me be clear: there is no new legislative initiative planned at this time. Our marine action plan is a political call towards Member States to raise their ambitions. The Commission expects Member States to respect their political commitments on environmental protection and to implement their legislation under the existing environmental legislation. The marine action plan does not introduce a blanket ban on bottom trawling in EU waters. It calls on Member States to engage in dialogue to protect the marine environment while ensuring prosperity and future of our fisheries and fishing communities. I trust that we can find a consensus around the objectives of this marine action plan and around approach, ensuring a constructive dialogue between Member States and relevant stakeholders. Honourable Members, from what we do to protect our marine biodiversity within EU waters let me now turn to the international dimension, where our objectives and actions are well aligned with those that we are pursuing within the EU. The last few months have seen two historic diplomatic achievements which allow us to better protect our oceans. The agreement on the Global Biodiversity Framework in Montreal last December and the political agreement on the United Nations Treaty of the High Seas or as we also call it, the Treaty on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction. The Treaty on the High Seas has been hailed by the UN Secretary-General as a success for multilateralism and a success for the ocean. And I cannot agree more. Now it needs swift ratification and implementation. The BBNJ agreement will help better protect our high seas, which is essential for ocean health, for meeting our climate goals and the objective agreed at COP15 in Montreal to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030. The agreement also improves the regulation of human activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction through the establishment of a clear process for environmental impact assessments. And this will ensure transparency, participation and accountability. It also contributes to foster global equity by ensuring that the benefits of marine genetic research are shared freely and fairly across the planet, benefiting all researchers. Monetary benefits from this research will flow back in part towards the BBNJ to protect the oceans. Finally, the treaty foresees capacity—building to support developing countries in their implementation of the treaty, and creates institutions which will be tasked with protecting the high seas – a secretariat, a conference of the parties, a science body, to name just a few. We should be proud of the role the EU played in reaching this agreement, as we initiated and led the high—ambition coalition on BBNJ, which now counts 52 members. But as you know, the success of a treaty in reaching its objectives lies above all in its implementation. So the treaty now needs to be formally adopted, which is planned for June this year, and ratified by 60 parties before it enters into force. And the EU now needs to put all efforts toward the ambitious implementation of the BBNJ agreement. And I hope I can count on the support of this House.