Today, the European Commission opened a public consultation to gather evidence, insights, concerns, ideas, and feedback on the effectiveness of the common fisheries policy (CFP) regulation from a range of stakeholders, including individuals, the fisheries and maritime sectors, scientists, non-governmental and other organisations, and national administrations from EU Member States.
You can provide input to this public consultation until 21 April 2025.
Building on the call for evidence, which opened on 20 June 2024 and drew 87 responses, this consultation is the next step in a comprehensive evaluation of how the existing CFP Regulation is performing and whether it is meeting its objectives and addressing certain challenges.
The evaluation will assess the impact of the CFP Regulation on the conservation of marine biological resources and the management of fisheries and fleets that rely on them. It will also examine the policy’s effects on the supply chain, consumers, and public authorities across all EU Member States over the past decade (2014-2024). This consultation is part of Commissioner Costas Kadis’ political mission mandate to complete and follow up on a comprehensive evaluation of the common fisheries policy.
The evaluation will build on previous consultations, such as the Commission communication on the common fisheries policy today and tomorrow (COM/2023/103).
Next steps
The results of this consultation, combined with other analyses and studies, will inform the evaluation of the CFP Regulation’s performance in achieving its objectives, as well as its economic impact, and its relevance in light of emerging needs.
The Commission will publish a summary report of the consultations, including the evidence gathered in 2025.
Background
The CFP Regulation is a set of rules the European Union uses to manage fishing and fish stocks sustainably. The 2013 reform of the CFP Regulation brought together for the first time, the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of the EU fisheries policy, as well as its contribution to the availability of food supplies. Various measures were introduced under the reformed CFP to achieve these objectives, such as:
- Fish stock management at sustainable levels
- Gradual introduction of the obligation to land all catches managed with catch limits or minimum sizes
- Multiannual plans to manage fisheries in different sea basins
- Fleet capacity ceilings per EU State together with the obligation for EU Member States to ensure a stable and enduring balance between the size of their fishing fleets with the available fishing opportunities
- Conservation measures to be adopted by the Commission based on regional cooperation between EU Member States across EU sea basins
- Increased stakeholder involvement and improved cooperation in EU decision-making, including at regional level
The EU has the exclusive competence of managing the conservation of marine biological resources under the CFP. This applies both in and outside EU waters, in the context of regional fisheries management organisations and when sustainable fisheries partnership agreements are established with non-EU countries. The CFP also includes shared competencies between the EU and its Member States, such as aquaculture and the market policy management.
The Fisheries and Oceans package adopted by the Commission in February 2023 reported on the implementation of the CFP and launched a dialogue on key challenges for Europe’s fisheries.
The evaluation of the CFP Regulation will build on this package and the dialogue with EU Member States, EU institutions, Advisory Councils, social partners and all other stakeholders. The evaluation of the CFP Regulation is also linked to the ongoing evaluation of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the mid-term evaluation of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.
More information
Website on the Common fisheries policy (CFP)
Call for evidence for the Common Fisheries Policy
Evaluation of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund
Mid-term evaluation of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund
Details
- Publication date
- 27 January 2025
- Author
- Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries