EU Vision 2040 for fisheries and aquaculture: LIFE position
On 20 October, the European Commission launched its Vision 2040 for fisheries and aquaculture, setting out a 15-year roadmap to balance marine conservation, economic resilience, and European food security. The LIFE is pleased to see the Commission embrace key elements of its Rethinking Fisheries vision—developed alongside Seas At Risk—specifically acknowledging the need for a socially fair transition toward low-impact, climate-neutral practices. Both roadmaps recognize that Europe’s seafood sector faces identical existential threats: severe marine ecosystem degradation, the climate emergency, and a critical lack of generational renewal in fishing communities.
However, LIFE encourages decision-makers to push beyond high-level strategy and deliver concrete, enforceable actions that small-scale fishers can rely on at sea. While Vision 2040 marks a welcome step toward a differentiated policy approach, strategic goals will remain empty rhetoric without rigorous enforcement. LIFE urges the EU to anchor these commitments through a robust Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) implementation plan in the 2027 work programme, an ambitious Ocean Act, and maximized support from funding instruments like the EMFAF and Common Market Organisation.
