Today, the European Commission launched a consultation to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the common fisheries policy (CFP). This consultation constitutes the first part of a thorough evaluation that will look at how the CFP has achieved its objectives since 2013, including:
The consultation aims to gather evidence and different perspectives on the CFP from a range of stakeholders, including individuals, the fisheries and the maritime sectors, non-governmental and other organisations, and national administrations from Member States.
A second consultation, which will include a questionnaire focusing on specific aspects of the evaluation, will be launched in the coming months.
The results of the consultations, alongside other analyses and studies will be used to assess the CFP’s performance in achieving its objectives, its economic implications, and its relevance in the context of emerging needs.
The Commission will publish a summary report of the consultations, including the evidence gathered, at the beginning of 2025.
Background
The CFP is the 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:
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 (RFMOs) and when sustainable fisheries partnership agreements (SFPAs) are established with non-EU countries. The CFP also includes areas of shared competence between the EU and its Member States, such as aquaculture and market policy.
The Fisheries and Oceans package adopted by the Commission in February 2023 reported on the implementation of the CFP to date and launched a dialogue on the key challenges for Europe’s fisheries.
The evaluation of the CFP Regulation, described in this call for evidence, will build on this package and the dialogue with stakeholders, and is linked to the ongoing evaluation of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, mid-term evaluation of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, and the evaluation of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements.