The recently unveiled European Ocean Pact strategic initiative has been welcomed by the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) for offering a renewed approach for EU maritime sectors, including aquaculture, and for acknowledging the sector’s role in the governance of ocean resources, but the pact and the European Commission have come under fire from the industry body for what it calls a “critical” and “glaring” omission, with freshwater aquaculture being “completely ignored”.
FEAP said the absence reveals a “deeper, long-standing problem” that has repeatedly hampered the development of fish farming in the Union, and insists that measures similar to the ones outlined in the Ocean Pact would prove valuable for developing sustainable freshwater fish farming in the European Union, with rainbow trout farming being the region’s main farmed species and carp essential in many central European countries.
According to the federation, by sidelining freshwater aquaculture from this core strategy, the European Commission has inadvertently exposed a fundamental mismatch between this sector and its current position in the European legal framework.
“Although since its beginnings aquaculture has been placed alongside capture fisheries, now that it has come of age, fish farming does not comfortably align with the scope of the Common Fisheries Policy, nor does it fit well enough under the competences of the Directorate‑General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission. This misalignment is not just a technicality, it is a significant reason of why the European Union’s aquaculture has stagnated for the past 25 years,” FEAP said in a statement.
It continued: “At the same time, the failure of European policy to unleash the sector’s full potential also stems from a lack of strategic coherence: environmental objectives are prioritised at the expense of sustainable food production goals and socioeconomic development in rural areas, well beyond the reasonable protection and restoration of the natural environment; and aquaculture remains politically marginalised compared to agriculture and marine fisheries. The root cause is clear: the existing European Union policy framework for aquaculture is simply not fit for purpose. The Ocean Pact is just another example, as it does not propose any structural reform to address the legal and institutional misalignment that continues to hinder aquaculture’s development.”
With aquaculture also not aligning with the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, FEAP, along with the Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC), has long advocated for a dedicated Common Aquaculture Policy that recognises the unique nature and potential of fish farming, both freshwater and marine, and which positions it as a strategic pillar for EU food security, healthier diets and a more balanced international trade position on aquatic food.
“Only by acknowledging aquaculture’s distinct identity and needs can the European Union definitively move it out of the current legal orphanhood situation that asphyxiates it, unlock this vital sector’s sustainable growth potential, and align itself with the FAO’s Blue Transformation strategy,” it said.
Furthermore, while FEAP confirmed its appreciation of the Ocean Pact’s commitment to establish an EU initiative on Sustainable Aquaculture involving member states’ authorities, representatives of the sector, other interest groups, research and innovation institutions, businessaccelerators, and financial institutions. It maintains the pact does not sufficiently address the need for cross-departmental alignment to support member states in implementing aquaculture-related legislation.
For the pact to succeed, it said, Commission services must act in a coherent and supportive manner, ensuring that aquaculture policy is notundermined by conflicting objectives across DGs, and that implementation at national level is facilitated, not fragmented.
It also pointed out that while the pact acknowledges the need to reduce administrative burdens on the industry, it lacks concrete measures to tackle the excessive red tape that hampers aquaculture, with licensing remaining overly complex and fragmented across member states.
In this regard, FEAP is calling for coordinated Commission action to simplify procedures, harmonise requirements and support for member states in delivering a more enabling framework for sustainable fish farming.
The federation has also voiced its disagreement with the Commission’s assessment in that the health of European seas and ocean is deteriorating.
“This might be true in other parts of the world, but not in the European Union,” it said, advising that although the water quality targets set by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive have not yet been met, an objective improvement has been achieved in the environmental quality of EU waters over the last decades.
“Nevertheless, given the need for high-quality waters to ensure healthy finfish farming, FEAP will continue to advocate for and support the timely achievement of the objectives set out in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.”
