The European Commission has released Vision 2040 – a 15-year strategy for the E.U. fisheries and aquaculture sector that sets out plans to improve competitiveness, strengthen food security, and safeguard the natural resources on which the industry depends.
Vision 2040, presented on 20 October, is built around strengthening both the supply of and demand for E.U.-produced aquatic food and spans the bloc’s entire aquatic food value chain, seeking to provide businesses with greater predictability for investment and growth.
Its priorities include establishing healthy ecosystems, resilient supply chains, access to finance, and international cooperation, among other goals. It also forms part of the European Ocean Pact, originally presented in June 2025.
Declaring that “a fair income for fishers and aquaculture producers and a healthy marine environment depend on each other,” E.U. Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis said the long-term vision delivers on the commitment to establish a “resilient, competitive, and sustainable” fisheries and aquaculture sector backed by concrete initiatives.
E.U. Executive Vice President for Cohesion and Reforms Raffaele Fitto added that Vision 2040 sets a clear course toward a sector that is “competitive, sustainable, and fit for the future.”
“By supporting innovation, strengthening resilience, promoting fair opportunities, and safeguarding our natural resources, we want to ensure that fisheries and aquaculture continue to provide quality food, quality jobs, and long-term value for citizens across the European Union,” he said.
Regarding fisheries management, Vision 2040 acknowledges the bloc’s Landing Obligation hasn’t delivered the expected results in monitoring unwanted catch, particularly in its practical implementation. It will, therefore, consider the potential of technological innovation and fully documented fisheries, drawing on a dedicated stakeholder implementation dialogue planned for later this year.
The objective, it said, is to improve understanding of when and where unwanted catch occurs, supporting more effective and practical measures to avoid such instances.
Elsewhere, the commission is looking at how to support fleet modernization, improve safety and working conditions, and facilitate a transition to cleaner energy sources.
For the latter goal, until 2030, the emphasis will be on improving energy and resource efficiency, developing technologies and skills in this area, and using available clean fuels. From 2030 onward, efforts are intended to focus increasingly on scaling up low- and zero-emission technologies.
To support this shift, the bloc will consider how to better define effective harvesting capacity alongside capacity serving social or environmental purposes and will also update its guidelines for assessing the balance between fishing capacity and fishing opportunities.
Vision 2040 also identifies research, innovation, and skills development across the industry as priorities, proposals for which include expanding real-time monitoring, including through AI, to improve forecasts of future fish stock availability and strengthen links between science, industry, and public authorities.
Meanwhile, for aquaculture, the commission said it will prepare a legislative instrument and work with member states toward a more coherent sectorwide regulatory framework, aiming to give businesses greater certainty and encourage investment.
The commission also plans to develop harmonized training and certification standards across the bloc, alongside a Blue Generational Renewal Strategy, which it intends to launch in 2027 to attract younger people into the sector.
At the same time, the vision will seek to increase consumer demand for E.U.-produced aquatic food through product diversification and better-informed purchasing decisions. The commission said it intends to promote digital traceability across the supply chain by 2029, with the aim of improving transparency, consumer trust, and market value, even though such efforts have faced heavy backlash over the past year.
Funding is another central element of Vision 2040, with the commission pointing to a proposed minimum reserved allocation of EUR 2 billion (USD 2.2 billion) for core Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) functions within the E.U.'s long-term budget for 2028 to 2034. This would sit under future National and Regional Partnership Plans and cover areas including sustainable fishing, aquaculture, and marine ecosystem restoration.
Further support is envisaged through the proposed European Competitiveness Fund and efforts to mobilize private investment.
Internationally, the commission aims to strengthen action against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, reinforce international fisheries rules, and develop a new set of sustainable fisheries partnership agreements (SFPAs). It is also pledging to uphold a level playing field for European operators and protect the E.U. fisheries value chain against unfair global competition.
The new strategy has come under immediate fire from industry groups, with Europêche, the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF), the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT), and lobbying group Copa-Cogeca disappointed by a lack of commitment to revising the bloc’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and concerned that the current CFP framework could remain in place until 2040 – some 27 years after its adoption and 17 years beyond the customary 10-year cycle of revision.
In a joint statement, the organizations stressed that “fleets and seafood production are shrinking, fishing jobs are disappearing, and aquaculture is stagnating,” with producers and workers across Europe asking for solutions that can make an immediate difference.
They argued that by not proposing a CFP revision, even as E.U. Parliament voted in favor of one, the commission is distancing itself from the “alarming conclusions” of its own evaluation from earlier this year, warning that its response of better implementation and secondary legislation cannot serve as a substitute for legislative reform.
“The CFP must catch up with the realities that have reshaped the sector since 2013, including climate change, Brexit, and the geopolitical and energy crises. It must also address Europe’s growing food security gap, the challenge of decarbonization, and unworkable rules such as the Landing Obligation,” they said. “At the same time, the E.U. must create the conditions for aquaculture to fulfil its potential as a strategic contributor to E.U. production, reducing reliance on imports and strengthening the resilience of the E.U. supply chain. Without a targeted CFP revision, the rest of the vision loses credibility. Its proposals risk painting an idealistic, even fanciful picture of the future – one detached from the sector’s needs today.”
Europêche President Javier Garat added that a vision that does not include CFP revision “is a dead letter and, without concrete measures, an empty gesture.”
“No fisher is proud of the current CFP,” he said. “Failure to act will only deepen social tensions, even more when a change of course was promised by the new commission. For too long, food producers have felt ignored and abandoned. Unless the commission changes course, their frustration will deepen and fuel anti-E.U. movements.”
Though the wider industry expressed frustration, environmental organizations and small-scale fishing representatives urged E.U. officials in the lead-up to the release of Vision 2040 to not reopen the CFP but, rather, focus on effective implementation instead.
“Europe already holds many of the tools needed to deliver [Vision 2040], from the CFP to a strengthened fisheries control system. These are building blocks. What is needed now is the will to close implementation gaps,” Environmental Justice Foundation CEO Steve Trent said.
