The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has responded with concern to the European Parliament's adoption today of a resolution calling for the revision of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The organisation warns that the vote sends the wrong signal and disregards the evidence, including the European Commission's own evaluation, which found the CFP fit for purpose. The real failure, EJF says, has never been the law itself but the failure to implement and enforce it.

Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said:

"The European Parliament's call today to revise the Common Fisheries Policy sends the wrong signal, and it runs against the evidence. The Commission's own evaluation found the CFP ‘fit for purpose': this resolution barely acknowledges it and ignores its central conclusion. The problem was never the law, it is the failure to implement and enforce it. Fishers do not need years of uncertainty; they need the rules that already exist to be delivered, so the fish populations their livelihoods depend on can recover.

Europe's seas remain overfished, from plaice in the English Channel to cod in the Baltic Sea to hake in the Western Mediterranean. The tools to turn that around are already on the table. The EU should apply the available tools, ensuring they are properly implemented to safeguard local jobs, food traditions and coastal communities."

ENDS

Notes to editor

EJF works internationally to inform policy and drive systemic, durable reforms to protect our environment and defend human rights. We investigate and expose abuses and support environmental defenders, Indigenous peoples, communities, and independent journalists on the frontlines of environmental injustice. Our campaigns aim to secure peaceful, equitable, and sustainable futures.

Our investigators, researchers, filmmakers, and campaigners work with grassroots partners and environmental defenders across the globe. Our work to secure environmental justice aims to protect our global climate, ocean, forests, and wildlife and defend basic human rights.

For more information, please contact media@ejfoundation.org