Press release - June 7, 2006
Brussels, Belgium — Saskia Richartz, Marine Policy Adviser for Greenpeace, said:
“The Maritime Green Paper shows an alarming disregard for the limits to which we can push our natural environment.
Europe needs to make its maritime sector sustainable if it hopes to ensure a dynamic and prosperous future for the
industry.”
"Although the Commission's draft has improved, the Green Paper launched today contains the same weakness as many growth-oriented documents coming from the Barroso Commission: it ignores the fact that Europe will in the future have to do a lot more with a lot less."
The following references in the Green Paper are among items that need to be revised or discarded:
1. 'the gradual transition to more sustainable fisheries' (p.10, chapter 2.1). The only effective route to reversing the decline in fish stocks and other marine biodiversity is by implementing a drastic and permanent reduction in fishing effort and capacity, and prohibiting destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling for deep water species.
2. 'the exploitation of our rich marine biodiversity' (p. 18, chapter 2.4) through marine (blue) biotechnology. The EU must shift from exploiting resources to making sure they are protected and used in a sustainable manner. To achieve this, there need to be rules to protect marine biodiversity and promote the equitable sharing of benefits, going beyond the EU Habitats and Birds Directive at EU and international level. Emerging activities such as marine bioprospecting are currently developing outside any regulatory framework.
3. 'off-shore technologies such as carbon capture and geological storage' (p.17, chapter 2.4). Carbon capture and storage is environmentally unacceptable and should be ruled out. Climate change policies should instead focus on energy efficiency and development of renewable sources of energy, and not promote dangerous end-of-pipe solutions.
Greenpeace suggests the following priority additions to the Green Paper:
- Push the envelope on marine protected areas and establish no-take zones to cover around 40% of seas. It has been shown that protecting large areas of the sea from all exploitative activities results in long-lasting and often rapid increases in marine productivity, populations and diversity.
- Adopt legislation and promote the adoption of international rules requiring a 'genuine link' between a flag-state and boats which carry its flag, and making it illegal for EU nationals to re-flag vessels to avoid compliance. Legislation should include the right for a state to legally sanction vessels, their owners and operators, and red-list those operators that have re-flagged vessels or attempted to do so.
- Improve and make transparent the monitoring and control of EU member state vessels, and promote the establishment of a central monitoring, control and compliance authority for all vessels active in international waters.
- Strengthen port state control, including by intensifying in-port inspections and closing ports to non-complying fishing boats and those flying the flags of non-complying states.
- Close the EU market to fish products without credible certification, ensuring that they are derived from licensed fishing operations, not least by using established international trade regulations (such as CITES listings) on threatened species.
Other contacts:
Saskia Richartz, Marine Policy Adviser, Greenpeace European Unit, 
, tel +32 (0)2 274 1902