A cadre of marine NGOs are urging member states of the European Union to do more to restore the bloc’s oceans as key deadlines on National Restoration Plans approach.
E.U. member states were due to submit drafts of their National Restoration Plans on 1 September. The plans are oriented around restoring biodiversity on both land and sea in the E.U., and the European Council set an E.U. Biodiversity Strategy to commit to protecting more of both. With the plans submitted, the European Commission will have six months to review the drafts and issue feedback to the countries, who must include that feedback in finalized plans by September 2027.
Despite that commitment, marine NGOs claim the current plans are falling short of what is actually needed to restore the ocean environment.
“We cannot afford to waste this opportunity to bring life back to Europe’s seas. For our ocean, restoration means removing destructive pressures like bottom trawling so marine ecosystems can recover. We call on the commission to ensure member states deliver brave, effective plans - not minimal compliance,” Seas at Risk Senior Marine Policy Officer Andrea Ripol said in a release.
A number of environmental groups examined the plans for the country they advocate for, and many of them said the plans fall short when it comes to ocean restoration.
“Our careful reading of Germany's National Restoration Plan draft revealed that it diligently describes the existing measures and programmes, but does not outline any significant additional actions,” Deutsche Umwelthifle Marine Conservation Team Lead Lioba Schwarzer said in a release. “Without ambitious improvements, the current draft plan will fall short of its goals. Considering the marine ecosystems, Germany fails to address how it will reduce existing pressures such as bottom trawling, a precondition for allowing nature to recover.”
The German NGO wasn’t alone, as groups from several other countries said the National Restoration Plans of their respective member states were inadequate to meet the goals of the E.U., or didn’t seem to exist at all as far as public participation was concerned.
“We can say it plainly: Spain’s National Restoration Plan is, for now, invisible to society,” Marta Garcia Pallares from Ecologistas en Acción said. “Its preparation has been marked by opacity and a lack of meaningful public participation, and after submitting it to the European Commission, the government still refuses to say when it will make the document public. From the Alliance for Nature Restoration, of which Ecologistas en Acción is a member, we demand its immediate publication, urgent action to address major knowledge gaps on marine ecosystems, and a plan that goes beyond existing marine protected areas and measures already required by law.”
The E.U. reached an agreement on a nature restoration law in July 2023, and the European Association of Fish Producers Organisations immediately called for even enforcement across multiple sectors.
