Remarks by Commissioner Sinkevičius following the informal meeting of Fisheries Ministers

Commissioner Sinkevičius at the Informal Fisheries Council

First of all, let me start by thanking Hilde, her team, the Belgian Presidency for organising this informal meeting of Fisheries Ministers, and the Ministers, of course, for their presence today in the historic city of Bruges. But I would also like to praise the fact that we started the meeting with fishers, who spoke openly about how they feel, how they see their future. I think that this is a great moment that needs to be kept for the future as well. Challenging moments, less challenging ones. I think that it is important to start with the stakeholders and their statements.

As you also know, my role as Commissioner is coming to an end. And I want to give my successor the best possible ground to start from. Therefore, I have asked my services to undertake a full evaluation of our Common Fisheries Policy Regulation. I believe that this will provide my successor with a solid basis to make the best informed decisions for the future of our fisheries and aquaculture sectors.

Looking back into this mandate: That was a difficult mandate. A mandate that none of us could have expected. I think that we have still managed to move forward. We can be proud of what we have achieved in the past five years. We have improved overall sustainability levels of fish stocks in all our sea basins. We have adopted a revised EU fisheries control system. Ands once fully implemented, our new modernised and digitalised controls will ensure traceability of all fisheries products from net to table. This will help level up competitiveness of our fishers, both internally and externally, as it will boost our ability to prevent third-country products coming from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing from entering our market.

As I said, these were difficult years. First of all, we started with Brexit, and of course we had to adapt to the new post-Brexit reality, where most of the fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic are now jointly managed with third countries. Then the pandemic. After that, the energy crisis and Russia's war of aggression hit our sector. I am proud that we have provided swift support so that no one was left behind. In all cases, the Commission and the EU have been able to adapt and to deliver.

But nothing would have been possible without the efforts of our fishers and our aquaculture farmers. And I would like to have a special mention for them today. None of the sustainability improvements would have been possible without their efforts. So, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank them, and I want to thank their families for what they have achieved in these five years.

During the last five years, fishers have faced multiple challenges of different nature. Their resilience and adaptability have been commendable. But many challenges still lay ahead. The fisheries and aquaculture sector can only thrive if the profession is attractive enough and, most importantly, if people can make a living out of it. So, to secure the prosperity of the sector, we need to ensure three things.

First, we will need to ensure that there is a generational renewal. Second, we need to make sure that competition across the sector is fair, both among fishers in the EU, between EU fishers and, of course, with fishers in third countries. Finally, we need to continue managing fish stocks sustainably. If there is no fish, unfortunately there is no future for the sector. The Common Fisheries Policy and our structural fund, the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, provide a strong basis to tackle these challenges.

I also want to mention the EU-wide project that we launched recently – Fishers of the Future. The purpose of this project is to investigate fishers' hopes, fears, expectations, and needs, together with stakeholders, and have an open and frank conversation about their future. We want to understand how the profession is likely to evolve by 2050.

We now have more tools in place to face environmental challenges internationally through the historic agreement of the High Seas Treaty, seeking to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction and at home through our recently adopted legislation. However, for effectively tackling any future challenges, we need to focus on research and innovation. We will need to use artificial intelligence to improve our fisheries management models, but also tracking ecosystem challenges accurately.

Research and innovation are also key in fostering the energy transition of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, which will boost the sector's resilience to volatile energy prices. We need to develop cleaner, more efficient fishing vessels with innovative fishing techniques.

I truly hope that when looking, 5, 10 or 15 years back from now, at all the work that we have done – myself, my team, DG MARE, colleagues' Ministers – during this mandate, we will be sure that it has paid off and we have a resilient fisheries sector.