BLOOM supports the United Kingdom in a crucial arbitration procedure for the future of European waters

01 December 2024

While the United Kingdom adopted essential measures to protect its marine ecosystems in early 2024, on 25 October 2024, the European Union filed a case against it at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, seeking to cancel a measure designed to protect North Sea ecosystems. In response to this ill-considered legal action by the EU, BLOOM and the British NGO Blue Marine Foundation are submitting an ‘amicus curiae’ brief to the court in The Hague in support of the UK in this unprecedented procedure. This arbitration process, conceived during Brexit to resolve trade disputes between the EU and the UK, could determine the fate of a significant portion of European marine biodiversity. However, it is now being misused by the industrial fishing lobby to quash any desire to protect the ocean in its infancy.

In March 2024, the United Kingdom banned sandeel fishing in the North Sea in order to protect this small fish, which is an essential part of the ecosystem in both the North Sea and Scotland. Sandeels play a vital role in the diets of fish, birds, and cetaceans that inhabit or pass through British and Scottish waters during their annual migration. A few days later, the UK announced the prohibition of bottom trawling within some of its marine protected areas, which shelter particularly vulnerable ecosystems. This move provoked the ire of the French government, which was critical of its neighbor for applying European law that it was trying to ignore in order to appease the trawling lobby.

On 25 October, the European Union initiated an unprecedented arbitration procedure at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, under the agreement adopted following Brexit to resolve trade disputes between the EU and its Channel neighbor, at the request of a coalition of European states firmly defending the status quo. As a co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and a former “Ocean Champion” of this international coalition, France should have opposed legal maneuvers that go against the tide of history. However, it is among the European states that have pushed hardest for this strategy to intimidate the United Kingdom. With just a few months to go until it hosts the third United Nations Conference on the Ocean in Nice, this is a complete embarrassment.

An arbitration that hides an even greater threat

This arbitration is yet another blow to the democratic process dealt by industrial fishing lobbies. While the United Kingdom adopted a universal ban on sandeel fishing in its North Sea waters based on the best scientific advice, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, signed at the end of the Brexit process, is now being used for the first time in a dispute unrelated to trade. This could have significant implications for the protection of European ecosystems.

If the arbitrators at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague were to rule in favor of the European Union, this would set a dangerous precedent for European ecosystems and the future of artisanal fishing. France and the European Union are not only seeking to maintain the status quo in the North Sea but in all European waters. France has already organized a veritable diplomatic cabal against the United Kingdom regarding its ban on bottom trawling in some of its marine protected areas.

The threat of the European Union challenging all the measures enacted by the United Kingdom to protect the marine environment lies behind the international arbitration on sandeel fishing. With this in mind, BLOOM and the Blue Marine Foundation are filing an ‘amicus curiae’, a document intended for the arbitrators who will rule on this case, to defend the merits of the measures taken by the British government.

Furthermore, together with numerous European NGOs on both sides of the Channel, we have written to Kóstas Kadís, the European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans. This is a baptism of fire for the new Commissioner. He has the opportunity to withdraw the EU’s request for arbitration before taking office, thereby demonstrating his support for the UK’s strong commitments in accordance with current European law. The Common Fisheries Policy and Natura 2000 directives form the basis of the UK government’s decisions.

One could not imagine seeing the European Commission torpedo the measures to protect marine ecosystems of the United Kingdom while publishing, hand on heart, an “Ocean Pact” ahead of the third United Nations Conference on the Ocean in Nice, in June 2025.