A coalition of 11 environmental organizations has launched a legal initiative aimed at compelling European governments to better safeguard marine protected areas (MPAs).
The formation of the MPA Legal Coalition – which brings together the Blue Marine Foundation, BUND, ClientEarth, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, Défense des Milieux Aquatiques, Doggerland, DUH, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Manche Nature, Oceana, and Seas At Risk – comes one year after environmental groups filed legal complaints with the European Commission against Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, alleging the countries failed to protect MPAs by continuing to allow bottom trawling and other fishing activities that they insist are incompatible with the conservation objectives of those sites.
Although the complaints remain under consideration, the newly formed coalition said the commission has yet to take meaningful enforcement action. To force such action, the coalition intends to use coordinated litigation and legal advocacy to ensure existing MPA laws are properly applied, rather than focusing primarily on policy advocacy.
"The ocean can't keep on waiting," ClientEarth Lead of Marine Ecosystems John Condon told SeafoodSource. "We need to hold governments across Europe accountable so that they enforce existing laws and answer for their failures to protect critical marine habitats as a healthy ocean is the basis for economic prosperity and marine biodiversity. The formation of the MPA Legal Coalition partly reflects this frustration, also aimed at putting pressure on the commission to fulfill its role as guardian of the treaties.”
According to the coalition, the issue is not a lack of legislation, but a failure to implement laws already in place under the E.U. Habitats Directive, as well as related environmental legislation.
For instance, EJF Senior Ocean Policy Advisor Marie Colombier said governments have consistently failed to carry out required assessments before allowing commercial fishing activities within protected sites.
"The complaints identify the same issues across all the countries concerned: Governments are failing to protect marine sites from the impacts of bottom trawling, despite being legally required to do so under E.U. law," she said. "In many cases, authorities have not set clear conservation objectives and measures tailored to the protected seabed habitats found in these sites. Instead of carrying out the assessments required by law before allowing commercial fishing activities, governments continue to permit bottom trawling under broad, general fishing authorizations. Advocacy can shape policy and commitments, but litigation is key to bringing about compliance."
Colombier highlighted that court rulings involving the Dutch Dogger Bank and France's Banc des Flandres have demonstrated that judicial intervention could succeed where political processes had stalled, helping the coalition hone in on its strategy of turning to the courts, instead of trying to effect policy change.
The coalition's wider objective is improved enforcement of environmental legislation overall, but bottom trawling is the current central focus of its legal strategy.
Campaigners argue that extensive scientific evidence demonstrates the impacts of the fishing method on sensitive seabed habitats, while the coalition notes official European Commission data that determines 79 percent of Europe's coastal seabed is physically disturbed, primarily due to bottom trawling.
However, Condon said that does not mean all fishing should be excluded from MPAs, provided independent scientific assessments demonstrate that operations are compatible with conservation objectives.
"Certain fishing gear may be permitted within a marine protected area where an appropriate assessment demonstrates that they have no significant impact, or only a limited impact, on the protected habitats and species," he said while emphasizing that such assessments must be transparent, independent, and science-based.
The coalition rejected suggestions that stronger protection of MPAs would inevitably come at the expense of fishing communities, with Colombier saying, instead, that many small-scale fishers shared the coalition’s conservation objectives because their livelihoods depend on healthy marine ecosystems.
"We understand the socioeconomic concerns from fishing communities and believe that a just transition should ensure small-scale, artisanal fishers are not left behind,” she said, arguing that many of the sector's economic challenges stemmed not from environmental regulation but from decades of overfishing, fleet overcapacity, and inconsistent enforcement. "Legal restrictions on destructive fishing activities within MPAs aim to restore ecosystems and ensure the long-term health of fish stocks and the resilience of coastal communities."
Looking ahead, the coalition said meaningful progress over the next year would include the European Commission opening infringement proceedings against member nations where evidence of noncompliance exists and considering interim protection measures where vulnerable habitats remain at risk.
Ultimately, the group's ambition extends beyond legal complaints.
"Full compliance with E.U. law in all marine protected areas is what success looks like," Rondon said, adding that an E.U.-wide prohibition on bottom trawling within all MPAs would provide a simple and consistent rule for regulators and fishers alike while ensuring sites designated for conservation receive what the coalition considers a minimum standard of protection.
