This briefing focuses on ending subsidies that incentivise overfishing and on alternative ways to support the transition to sustainable fishing. Earlier this year, with the overwhelming support of the European Parliament, the EU agreed on a new Common Fisheries Policy, or CFP, which seeks to reverse the serious depletion of fish populations, minimise the harmful effects of fishing on marine ecosystems, and re-build a sustainable fishing sector.1 Upcoming decisions on the new EMFF will open important opportunities to support this transition to sustainable fishing, provided the allocation of public spending supports the CFP aims and does not undermine its objective to restore European fish stocks.
There is broad agreement2 that the EU has been subsidising a build-up of excessive fishing capacity,3 so much so that its fleet is, in some fisheries, around two to three times larger than sustainable fishing would allow.4