Open letter to EU decision makers on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund

The open letter rejects the EMFAF 2021-2027 agreement, asserting that it maintains and weakens conditions for harmful fisheries subsidies that lead to overcapacity and overfishing. The authors argue that the fund fails to ring-fence spending for nature protection, contradicts the European Green Deal, and risks undermining global efforts to eliminate harmful subsidies as outlined in UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.6.

• The EMFAF 2021-2027 agreement maintains most harmful subsidies, including funding for engine replacement and the modernisation of fishing vessels, while only explicitly removing subsidies for the construction of fishing vessels.
• The agreement is described as a regression from the previous European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) because it weakens the conditions for granting harmful subsidies and provides large-scale industrial fleets equal access to all subsidy types.
• The EMFAF fails to allocate a specific protected portion of its budget for the protection and restoration of the marine environment, despite recommendations that at least 25% of the fund be invested in this area.
• The adoption of the EMFAF may have a negative global impact, known as the 'Brussels Effect', by undermining the World Trade Organisation's multilateral negotiations and UN Sustainable Development Goal target 14.6 regarding the elimination of subsidies that contribute to overfishing.

APA

ClientEarth (2021). Open letter to EU decision makers on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. https://www.clientearth.org/media/p4glxw0p/joint-ngo-letter-to-eu-decision-makers-on-the-european-maritime-fisheries-and-aquaculture-fund.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Open letter to EU decision makers on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. 2021. https://www.clientearth.org/media/p4glxw0p/joint-ngo-letter-to-eu-decision-makers-on-the-european-maritime-fisheries-and-aquaculture-fund.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=Open letter to EU decision makers on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund |date=June 2021 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/p4glxw0p/joint-ngo-letter-to-eu-decision-makers-on-the-european-maritime-fisheries-and-aquaculture-fund.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2021open, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Open letter to EU decision makers on the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/p4glxw0p/joint-ngo-letter-to-eu-decision-makers-on-the-european-maritime-fisheries-and-aquaculture-fund.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }