The two documents include good practices and concrete examples to promote European aquaculture production.
©BIM
The European Commission has presented two documents to address the main challenges European aquaculture is facing: complex regulatory framework and difficult administrative procedures and difficulties for the development of marine aquaculture.
Last month, the General Secretary of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP), Javier Ojeda, assisted at the informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Fisheries in Bruges to discuss mainly this matter. According to Ojeda, "the suffocating EU environmental legal framework is making the primary production of food in the EU an impossible mission."
Furthermore, FEAP already demanded in 2023 proposed a more fundamental political and legal change to the EU's approach to aquaculture similar to the one to agriculture.
In the same line, the Commission has informed that EU aquaculture production only accounts for 10% of the fish and seafood consumed in the EU, in other words, less than 2% of world production.
For this reason, and at the demand of the producers, the European organism gives advice about good practices and concrete examples not jut eligible for member states but also for Norway and the UK.
The Member States and stakeholders represented by the Aquaculture Advisory Council have helped to elaborate these documents that take into account their multi-annual national strategic plans for aquaculture and their national programmes implementing the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.
Additionally, the Commission has confirmed it will publish another document in later 2024 on access to space and water for freshwater and land-based aquaculture.
Finally and through the EU Aquaculture Assistance Mechanism, it offers a training to Member States' authorities which consist on an e-learning module available on the EU aquaculture website.