European aquaculture is being sidelined in EU policy, claims FEAP

The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) has accused the European Commission of treating aquaculture as a “marginal afterthought” in its evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), warning that the review offers no credible basis for the EU’s forthcoming 2040 Vision for Fisheries and Aquaculture.

The Commission published its evaluation of CFP Regulation 1380/2013 on 30 April 2026, assessing the performance of the policy over the past decade.

While FEAP welcomed the decision to review the regulation, the federation said the document is "structurally biased against aquaculture" and called the evaluation a "missed opportunity" that fails to draw the necessary conclusions from what it describes as clear evidence of stagnation in the sector.

FEAP said the evaluation lacks a dedicated intervention logic for aquaculture, despite the sector being explicitly included in the CFP. The federation also criticised the Commission for failing to connect stagnant EU aquaculture production with falling self-sufficiency in fishery and aquaculture products.

“The Commission’s evaluation identifies many of the problems but refuses to draw the necessary conclusions,” said FEAP Secretary General Javier Ojeda.

“After more than a decade of voluntary cooperation with Member States, EU aquaculture has not grown. Our self-sufficiency in fishery and aquaculture products has fallen from 46.1% to 38.1%. For the five most consumed species, it is just 12%. The evaluation sees this but fails to connect the dots. Voluntary tools for Member States have failed. It is time for binding governance, harmonised standards, and a genuine commitment to strategic autonomy,” Ojeda argued.

According to FEAP, the Commission’s own evaluation acknowledges that key governance tools for aquaculture, including Multi-annual National Strategic Plans for Aquaculture and the Open Method of Coordination, have had only “limited impact” on licensing and access to space.

The federation said this demonstrates that voluntary coordination between the EU and Member States has failed to deliver meaningful growth or improve the conditions needed for aquaculture development.

FEAP’s analysis of the Commission evaluation identifies eight critical shortcomings. These include what it describes as the absence of common environmental indicators for aquaculture, the omission of climate adaptation as a binding requirement, and a failure to address coherence with other EU policies, including the Nature Restoration Regulation and the Birds Directive.

The federation also said the Commission admits it cannot quantify the costs of the Open Method of Coordination or assess the practical contribution of Member States’ environmental measures.

“This is not an excuse,” Ojeda said. “It is a self-inflicted failure of implementation.”

FEAP is calling on the Commission, European Parliament and Council to develop a more coherent, aquaculture-specific policy framework.

Its recommendations include replacing non-binding governance tools with binding mechanisms for licensing, space allocation and environmental reporting; requiring Member States to implement aquaculture-specific climate adaptation plans; and establishing a binding performance and evaluation framework with quantitative targets.

The federation is also calling for minimum harmonisation standards for aquaculture authorisation and operation, including an Aquaculture Sustainability Regulation and a Common Market Organisation for aquaculture products.

FEAP said the EU should also expand mandatory market information requirements to cover a greater share of aquaculture products and out-of-home consumption, arguing that this would help create fairer competition with imports produced under different standards.

“The 2040 Vision is a critical opportunity to correct decades of neglect,” Ojeda said. “The EU cannot claim strategic autonomy while importing billions of euros of farmed fish from Norway, China, Türkiye, and Latin America. Aquaculture is a strategic food-producing sector. It must be governed as one, fully aligned with Article 39 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.”

FEAP said it is ready to work with EU institutions on reforms to the CFP that would treat aquaculture as an equal partner to capture fisheries, with binding tools, harmonised rules and a clearer role in strengthening Europe’s food security, climate resilience and fair competition.

The full position paper from FEAP can be accessed here.