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\n 03\/06\/2025 – 16:04 GMT+2<\/p>\n
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EU leaders are facing a fresh legal complaint over widespread destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs).<\/p>\n
The lawyers behind it say that continuing to permit this activity goes against the bloc\u2019s core nature laws and puts the ocean and people in grave danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bottom trawling is a destructive fishing practice which involves dragging a net – some so large it could fit a Boeing 747 plane – across the seafloor to catch fish. It disturbs sediment, destroys marine habitats and far more than just the target species gets caught in these nets.<\/p>\n
The complaint is being brought to the European Commission by a coalition of non-profit organisations: ClientEarth, Oceana, Seas at Risk and Danmarks Naturfredningsforening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It points out persistent instances of unchallenged bottom trawling<\/strong><\/a> in three countries: Denmark, the Netherlands<\/strong><\/a> and Spain. The challenge claims that destructive fishing practices in MPAs in these member states flout the EU Habitats Directive and calls on EU officials to launch infringement action against the countries in question.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Habitats Directive requires Natura 2000 MPAs – the most important network of marine protected areas in Europe – to be protected from any activity likely to significantly affect the integrity of the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLegally speaking, bottom trawling in protected areas is not legal, and if policymakers don\u2019t live up to their obligations, we will bring them before court,\u201d says Tobias Troll, marine policy director from Seas at Risk.<\/p>\n ClientEarth ocean lawyer John Condon adds that \u201curgent action\u201d is needed at the EU level to confirm that bottom trawling is against EU law, alongside an \u201cimmediate response\u201d from governments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bottom trawling in protected areas is a \u2018systemic problem\u2019<\/p>\n This legal challenge is the latest in a string of litigation across the EU over bottom trawling in MPAs. Individual national cases have so far been launched in France,<\/strong><\/a> Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Germany.<\/p>\n In April, another group of NGOs filed a similar legal complaint with the EU, alleging breaches of the EU Habitats Directive by Italy, France and Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis complaint, and others like it, reveal a systemic problem across Europe and one that member states have failed to address for years now, contrary to their legal obligations under EU law,\u201d explains Nicolas Fournier, campaign director for marine protection at Oceana in Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new legal challenge also comes hot off the heels of a crucial judgment from the EU\u2019s General Court in May, which confirmed that protected areas must be protected from potentially harmful practices like bottom trawling.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Commission concluded that countries have every right under EU law to ban damaging fishing methods like this in vulnerable marine areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n