Lost in ambition: silences and unspoken words of Commissioner-designates Kadis and Hoekstra

08 November 2024

More than ever in the post-WW2 era, we need European institutions and decision-makers with a strong and ambitious vision to face a world in a complete, quick and perilous metamorphosis. Under this perspective, these days represent a crucial moment for the European destiny: the appointment of the new European commissioners, who will set the Union’s political agenda over the next five years. BLOOM has closely monitored the hearings of designated commissioners Costas Kadis for Fisheries and Oceans and Wopke Hoekstra for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth. Are they really fit for saving the ocean and climate?   

Perilous times lie ahead and an awakening of our political class is more vital than ever: the scientific community told us once again that the world as we know is on the brink of an environmental and of societal collapse. The ocean is a vital ally in facing this crisis. It absorbs almost a third of our CO2 emissions and regulates the global climate.  

That is why we must protect it and above all stop destroying it along with the biodiversity it harbors to allow it to continue to help us in these troubled times. BLOOM has identified 15 points to save the ocean all backed by scientific research and years of analysis on how to progress towards a socio-ecological transition of the fishing sector and the end of overfishing. Unfortunately, these priorities seem not yet to have entered the agenda of the two commissioners who will have the power to put them into practice, nor of most of the members of the parliamentary committees who will work closely with them. 

COSTAS KADIS 

To begin with Commissioner-designate Costas Kadis, the analysis of his answers to written questions from the MEPs, as well as his oral hearing on Wednesday, November 6, are striking for the weakness of exchanges on some crucial issues to be tackled in the next 5 years.  

Under scrutiny 

We missed hearing about the vision for the future of the Ocean and for a truly fair and just transition of the EU fisheries sector:  

• The end of destructive fishing techniques: No mention at all of the end of destructive fishing techniques, especially trawling and seines, despite the urgency to protect and restore marine ecosystems and the desperate need to reduce fossil fuel consumption and corresponding greenhouse gases emissions.  

• Support for a just and fair transition:  no clear vision for the transition ahead despite the dramatic situation of our climate and our ocean. 

• Lots of words in defense of small-scale fishers, but no mention of the future envisaged for industrial fishing sector, which threatens both biodiversity and artisanal fisheries.  

• Only marginal remarks were also made on Europe’s sustainable fisheries partnership agreements with third-countries or the external dimension of the Common Fisheries Policies, despite this being one of the most problematic aspects of European industrial fishing which is having more and more dramatic environmental, social and economic impacts on fisheries in third-countries, contributing to the degradation of the health state of fish stocks and influencing policies via a disproportionate political lobbying at the level of RFMOs. 

• No details were given on his strategy to achieve the efficient and effective implementation of Marine Protected Areas in 30% of European waters by 2030.  

• Most troubling is that almost nothing was said about Kadis’ vision of public subsidies for the fisheries sector and the elimination of harmful fisheries subsidies identified in the last 30 years. For decades, the EU has spent billions of public money to support the status quo of large-scale fishing fleets at the detriment of small-scale fishers. Large scale fishing fleets, that are highly energy intensive and environmentally damaging, have hugely benefitted not only from 80% of public funds, but also from a privileged access to quotas of fish, not providing the economic support so necessary for the transition to a more socially and environmentally sustainable model. Today, it is of utmost urgency that public money (meaning citizen’s money) is used exclusively for financing the social and ecological transition of the EU fishing sectors. Mr. Costas Kadis will have to take a strong stand on harmful fisheries subsidies since the current European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) is due for renewal at the end of 2027, a key moment in his term. 

Red flags 

• Renewal of the EU fishing fleet and increase of capacity ceilings have been flagged by MEP Gabriel Mato (EPP – Spain) as a priority in order to decarbonize the EU fishing fleet. This was already his priority in the last mandate aligned with the requests of the industrial fishing lobbies that however do not represent the largest part of EU fleets. We would have welcomed a strong reply from Kadis since the fisheries sector is still in a situation of overcapacity and overfishing and that capacity ceilings are not an obstacle for decarbonization.  Rather, we expect decisions for the future of EU fisheries that take into account social, environmental and economic impacts of each fleet.   

• Appalling was the reply given to MEP Ruissen (ECR – The Netherlands) who raised the possibility of reintroducing pulse trawling as a fishing method that would supposedly facilitate decarbonization of the fishing sector. Pulse trawling is an illegal fishing method that has been illegally financed through public money and has had disastrous environmental and economic consequences in the North Sea. Without a firm “NO”, industrial fishing lobby will have no scruples to put a foot in the door in order to reintroduce this mortiferous method. 

• Equally alarming was the answer given to the question of Anja Hazekamp (The Left – The Netherlands): Costas Kadis refused to acknowledge fishing as the primary cause of marine biodiversity degradation, attributing it rather to climate change and pollution. Although these two are major problems and will be of increasing importance in the years to come, the dramatic loss of biodiversity and the shrinking of commercial fish stocks in the last century is predominantly due to the exponential expansion of industrial fishing and its impacts on marine habitats. 

• Equally problematic is how Costas Kadis was more concerned with the possibility of opening up a reform of the Common Fisheries Policy than with the urgency of effectively putting it into practice. The European CFP is already extremely advanced and pioneering thanks to its holistic integration of the social, economic and environmental matters. What is currently lacking is its implementation by member states. As a striking example, the Article 17 of the CFP, which stipulates that fishing opportunities should be allocated to fisheries actors on the basis of objective and transparent criteria, including environmental, social and economic criteria. Currently, this article remains only a paper obligation. 

We take your words for actions: 

• We did welcome the strong references made to scientific advice in guiding EU fisheries management. However, scientific data are already available and indicate a terrible state of the Ocean, of the marine environment and of fish stocks. We need to act based on the data available without any further delay. Indeed, the first assessment of the Common Fisheries Policy made under the last Commission clearly showed a lack of implementation and enforcement rather than a weakness of the CFP itself. Using available, complete and peer-reviewed scientific data as well as newly generated data will especially be necessary if the Commission wants to put in place a real pact for the Ocean that should ensure coordination and implementation of all EU legislations on the Ocean.  

• We end with one of the issues at the center of the debate on Costas Kadis’ portfolio: the creation of a European Ocean Pact. Promised by Ursula von der Leyen and presented as an ambitious program for European policies on marine issues, at the moment the Ocean Pact remains extremely nebulous and blurred in its boundaries. Questioned on the subject on several occasions by different MEPs, Costas Kadis kept himself on generalities and could not give more information about the legal basis and functioning of this pact, nor did he give details about the funds that will be dedicated to it. He merely said that it will be a framework for coordination and concertation of all European policies gravitating around the ocean object, including fisheries. A new European green deal, maritime version? For the time being, this European Ocean Pact seems more like a media coup with no real underlying programming, but we agree that there is a need to get the heads of this hydra that is European maritime policy to communicate more effectively. 

WOPKE HOEKSTRA 

As part of the Green Deal launched in 2019, in July 2021 the European Commission proposed a series of legally binding measures (known as ‘Fit for 55’) aimed at reducing our CO2 emissions by at least 55% compared with 1990 levels by 2030, of which the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD) is one of the centerpieces.  As Mr. Hoekstra stated himself, taxation must be an instrument for achieving climate change and to pay for what is important for us as a society. Saving the Ocean is of utmost importance, it supports life on Earth, our human lives as well.  

As it stands now, the ETD obliges all EU Member States not to tax fossil fuel used for professional fisheries, which is the largest subsidies granted to the fisheries sector at EU level. Only in France, fossil fuel tax exemptions constitute 63% of all subsidies received in 2021. The biggest recipient of fossil fuel subsidies are those fisheries that use a lot of fuel. These are highly industrialized and energy intensive fishing vessels such as bottom trawlers.  

The previous Commission had proposed in July 2021 to start a minimal tax on fossil fuel consumption by fishing vessels in order to kick-start the sector’s energy and ecological transition. The Member States of the EU acting in the Council have dismantled the proposal of the Commission to the point that the possibility of maintaining the status quo at least until 2035 is contemplated. This irresponsible behavior needs to stop! 

What is at stake for the Ocean with the elimination of the fossil fuel tax exemption in fisheries is huge. While fishing has been recognised as the leading cause of ocean destruction by IPBES experts, and in February 2023, the European Union published an Ocean Package that includes energy transition of the fishing sector as a priority, the most destructive European vessels still are the first beneficiaries of fossil fuel subsidies in the EU, given that they use dragging gears that consume immense quantities of fuel. 

Commissioner Hoekstra could play a terrific role in two of our top priorities to save the Ocean: Stop subsidizing the destruction of the ocean and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. 

We take your words for action: 

• Mr. Hoekstra sent a crystal-clear message that we need to be serious about phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. He underlined that although phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies is mainly a national matter, he will do everything in his power to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies at EU level in EU funds or State aid framework.   

• Increasing transparency around fossil fuel subsidies was part of his vision in the process of identifying and eliminating fossil fuel subsidies at national level. The opacity of money granted with public funds is extremely problematic as we highlighted recently in our report on fisheries subsidies in France.  

Red flags: 

• Commissioner Hoekstra mentioned trees as the best carbon sinks but did not mention once the Ocean despite it being our most important ally in the fight against climate change, in the absorption of CO2 emissions and in regulating climate.  

• The fisheries sector has not been mentioned at all in relation to the reduction of emissions and decarbonization. For the fisheries sector, the revised ETD, with no fossil fuel tax exemptions, would be the only legal instrument available at EU or international level, that would incentivize the sector to move away from fossil fuels or at least to reduce fossil fuel consumption as well as fossil fuel subsidies. While aviation and maritime transport are covered by the Emission Trading Systems, the fisheries sector is not included in any of these schemes that stimulate reduction of emissions and the decarbonization process. The International Maritime Organization adopted in 2023 a revised emissions reduction strategy for maritime transport that sets a 20% reduction of emissions by 2030 compared to 2008 levels and a 70% reduction by 2040 to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The fisheries sector is not contemplated. 

Under scrutiny: 

• In his written replies, Hoekstra highlighted several times that he would push for the finalisation of the revision of the ETD. We expect the Commission under his guidance to be present and vigilant during the negotiations in Council of the ETD and to oppose firmly any agreement that would maintain the status quo. A revised ETD adopted with a tax exemption for aviation, maritime transport, fisheries and agricultural would fail its purposes both as an instrument for achieving climate objectives including saving the Ocean and ensuring a level playing field in the internal market.   

• In his oral replies, Hoekstra stated that if the ETD is not finalized the EU will need to find other ways to promote renewal energies and the decarbonization of the EU. If we maintain fossil fuel subsidies in fisheries, the energy transition will be at risk and the ecological and social transition needed in this sector will be severely obstructed.  

• During the hearing, Mr Hoeckstra made a statement recognizing the responsibility of oil companies in what they have done and continue to do to contribute to the climate crisis without any scruples. Non-proliferation of fossil fuels exploration and exploitation and of private investments towards them also needs to be tackled to limit any type of financing in a highly damaging industry that we need to phase out from our economic system for our own survival. We expect Mr. Hoekstra to change his words into action and work closely together with Finance Ministers at national level to use taxation to penalize any investment geared towards fossil fuel industries.   

 

Both Commissioners-designate received the approval of the majority of the coordinators of the European political groups. The road to confirmation by the Conference of Presidents on 21 November and the plenary of the European Parliament the week of 25-28 November is unhindered. BLOOM is waiting for them to restore the needed ambition to their mandate.