Water, Marine & Fisheries

Our Work

IEEP has a long track record of examining the challenges in the implementation of water, marine and fisheries legislation, primarily the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Common Fisheries Policy.

Our fisheries and marine work has a track record of analysing and commenting on the evolution of EU fisheries policies and related marine environmental initiatives for over 16 years. We have undertaken a number of projects and studies on specific areas such as fisheries governance, management and subsidies; policies and instruments to tackle marine litter pollution; and establishing, implementing and funding marine protected areas.

IEEP undertakes a wide range of work on EU water policy, focusing on the Water Framework Directive, but also on the many ‘supporting’ Directives. Our work includes highly influential projects for the Commission, such as supporting development of the Water Blueprint, Fitness Check and supporting the Common Implementation Strategy.  

Regarding work in this area, please contact Stephanie Newman.

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Water, Marine & Fisheries

  • El Anzuelo Volume 12

    European newsletter on fisheries and the environment.This issue: Focus on Science

  • CFP Briefing No 14

    The bycatch of small cetaceans – dolphins and porpoises – continues to be a problem in a number of EU fisheries. There is particular concern over the bycatch of the critically ...

  • CFP Briefing No 13

    Control and enforcement was identified as an area that needed addressing in the Commission Common Fisheries Policy reform Roadmap (COM(2002)181). The new CFP basic Regulation 2371/2002 that ...

  • CFP Briefing No 12

    On 6 May 2003, the Commission finally released its proposal for a long-term recovery plan for cod. The proposal covers a number of stocks in EU waters that are threatened with collapse. ...

  • Report of IEEP Workshop on CFP Regional Advisory Councils, Aberdeen, 2 and 3 June 2003

    The Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) were essentially introduced to reinforce the contribution of stakeholders in the development of EU fisheries policy. Although there is now a legal ...

  • North-East Atlantic and Baltic Sea Health Check - Assessing the Status of Wildlife and Habitats

    The Health Check report was written by IEEP, on behalf of the WWF North East Atlantic Programme, to mark the first joint OSPAR and HELCOM conferences on the protection of the North-East Atlantic and Baltic ...

  • El Anzuelo Volume 11

    European newsletter on fisheries and the environment.This issue:Towards ecosystem-based management: Focus on Marine Protected Areas

  • Review and Gap Analysis of Environmental Indicators for Fisheries and Aquaculture

    The report conducts a review of current work in Europe andinternationally on indicators for integration of environmental considerations intofisheries policy. It also outlines the fisheries policy context ...

  • CFP Briefing No 11

    Within the context of Common Fisheries Policy reform, the European Commission published a Communication on ways to modernize EU third country fisheries agreements. Third country agreements ...

  • CFP Briefing No 9

    Discarding – throwing part of the catch overboard – is a practice that occurs in virtually all fisheries, except possibly industrial fisheries. Since most of the unwanted catch is ...

  • CFP Briefing No 10

    In December 2002, the Council reached agreement on the three legislative Common Fisheries Policy reform proposals, concerning the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries ...

  • CFP Briefing No 8

    One of the central elements in the Common Fisheries Policy reform proposals concerns limiting fishing effort or fleet capacity, in order to achieve a real reduction in fishing pressure. ...

  • CFP Briefing No 7

    The EU Member States bordering the Mediterranean – France, Greece, Italy and Spain - have important and often locally significant fisheries sectors, operating in an environment that is ...

  • Fisheries Agreements with Third Countries - is the EU moving towards Sustainable Development?

    The Report aims to review the progress in adapting access agreements to the EU’s sustainabledevelopment commitments, by reviewing four recently-concluded EC agreementswith São Tomé e Príncipe, Angola, ...

  • CFP Briefing No 6

    In September 2002, the European Commission presented its ‘strategy for the sustainable development of European Aquaculture’. The Strategy is the first Commission (indeed, EU) policy ...

  • Subsidies to the European Union Fisheries Sector

    The EU fisheries sector continues to attract substantial amounts of direct and indirect subsidies from both EU and national sources to support and develop the sector. These subsidies are ...

  • CFP Briefing No 1

    On 28 May 2002, the Commission finally came forward with the first of its longawaited proposals for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The proposals - the subject of intense ...

  • CFP Briefing No 2

    Briefing on the proposal on the Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Fisheries Resources.The most significant and probably controversial of the Commission’s Common Fisheries ...

  • CFP Briefing No 4

    The Fisheries Council was in 1999 included among the list of Councils specifically asked to develop strategies. An initial report outlining progress to date was submitted to the Santa Maria ...

  • CFP Briefing No 5

    The European Community has signed up to the FAO International Plan of Action to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing – known in short as ‘IPOA ...