CALL FOR EVIDENCE

FOR AN INITIATIVE (without an impact assessment)

This document aims to inform the public and stakeholders about the Commission's work, so they can provide feedback and participate effectively in consultation activities.

We ask these groups to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions, and to give us any relevant information they may have.

Title of the initiative

Energy transition of EU fisheries and aquaculture sector

Lead DG – responsible unit

DG MARE – Unit A4

Likely Type of initiative

To be determined

Indicative Timing

Q1 2023

Additional Information

Common fisheries policy

New approach for a sustainable blue economy in the EU

Sustainable fisheries

Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 on the common fisheries policy

Strategic guidelines for a more sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture

This document is for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by this document, including its timing, are subject to change.

A. Political context, problem definition and subsidiarity check

Political context

The EU fisheries and aquaculture sector is facing several challenges and threats. One of the most pressing challenges is the economic viability and resilience of the sector, which is affected by the sector’s heavy dependence on fossil fuels. This dependency make the sector vulnerable to fluctuations in energy prices and other future shocks, and undermines its contribution to mitigating climate change. The negative impact of this dependency has become particularly noticeable in 2022. Rising fuel prices, in particular since the Russia’s unprovoked invasion in Ukraine, has left many fisheries and aquaculture facilities unable to cover their operational costs. As a result, a significant share of the fishing fleet and aquaculture businesses remain docked or inactive and must rely on the crisis measures taken by the Commission and the Member States 1 . These circumstances show the urgent need for a longer-term strategy that sets the course for an energy transition in the sector from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources, with the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.  

The energy transition is essential to:

·increase the economic resilience of the EU fisheries and aquaculture sector. 

·contribute to achieving the common fisheries policy’s  objectives that aim to ensure that fishing and aquaculture are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. 

·achieve a more sustainable, climate-smart and competitive aquaculture sector in line with the objectives in the strategic guidelines adopted by the Commission in May 2021. 

·ensure that fishers and aquaculture producers play their part in meeting the EU’s climate ambitions for 2030 and 2050, in line with the European Green Deal and the farm to fork strategy and seize the resulting market opportunities.

The energy transition in the EU fisheries and aquaculture sector is consistent with many initiatives in closely related sectors. These include the sustainable blue economy in the EU, which has measures to develop offshore renewable energy and green maritime transport and ports as part of the objective for climate neutrality and zero pollution. It is also consistent with the FuelEU maritime initiative, which aims to increase the demand for renewable and low-carbon fuels 2 and the proposal for the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive, which aims to remove outdated exemptions that currently encourage the use of fossil fuels. Decarbonising the shipping sector including fisheries will contribute significantly to achieving the ambitions of the Paris Agreement 3  and is included in the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ package. With the initiative the Commission also delivers on its intention to come with concrete actions on the energy transition in fisheries and aquaculture, as a response to the proposals on climate change and the environment given to the Commission in the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Problem the initiative aims to tackle

The initiative aims to tackle the insufficient, fragmented and uncoordinated efforts to accelerate and support the energy transition in EU’s fisheries and aquaculture sector. It aims to identify and address financial, technical, innovation and governance barriers that hinder the uptake of technologies that are necessary for the energy transition. Ultimately, the initiative aims to tackle the problems that the EU fisheries and aquaculture sector faces due to the high dependence on fossil fuels and the sector’s vulnerability to the increasing and volatile prices of fossil fuels and unsustainable sources of energy, which heavily threaten their socio-economic sustainability and resilience. This is especially relevant given the soaring fuel prices that followed the Russian military aggression in Ukraine.

At a higher level, the initiative will also appropriately contribute to tackling the problems that result from unsustainable and vulnerable food production, such as air and water pollution, climate change and the degradation of ecosystems.

Basis for EU action (legal basis and subsidiarity check)

Legal basis

Not applicable. The initiative does not propose legal measures.

Practical need for EU action

The initiative focuses on strengthening the coordination of stakeholders’ efforts at EU, national and regional level. The EU has a distinct benefit given its participation in many regional, national and stakeholder forums. The EU also brings added value by making the most of synergies with other EU initiatives in fishing, aquaculture and other related sectors that aim to foster the energy transition.

B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how

The main purpose of this initiative is to define an EU strategy that will assist the EU fisheries and aquaculture sector together with its stakeholders in the energy transition, by moving away from the use of fossil fuel and unsustainable electricity sources as much as possible by 2050. Reducing dependency on fossil fuels has two objectives:

·To contribute to a more efficient use of energy and switch to clean and renewable energy sources, leading to more economically viable and resilient sectors in the medium to long term;

·To reduce greenhouse gas emissions of the sectors and thereby contribute to the European Green Deal's objectives, in particular achieving climate neutrality and sustainability of the EU’s food system.

This initiative aims to develop a coherent, systemic, approach for defining the EU strategy and roadmap for the short, medium and long-term energy transition of the EU’s fisheries and aquaculture sector. The strategy and roadmap will be steered and implemented through four main enablers: (1) a strong multi-stakeholder engagement, (2) closing the knowledge, technological and innovation gaps, (3) an adequate financial support and enhanced business environment for accelerating the energy transition and (4) skills and workforce fit and adapted for the energy transition in the EU fisheries and aquaculture sector.

The initiative aims to call on all stakeholders (including fishers, aquaculture producers, shipbuilders, equipment producers, research institutes, renewable energy providers, and ports), and on all Member States and regional authorities, to work together with the Commission to achieve the goals of the energy transition and contribute to the sector’s resilience and sustainability.

To that end, the Commission will consider to:

·set up a multi-stakeholder partnership focused on the energy transition in the sector with targeted actions, which will define a declaration of commitments with an EU strategy and roadmap for the energy transition in the sector; 

·conduct a wide stakeholders consultation on the energy transition in the sector to solicit pertinent feedback from all relevant stakeholders to feed into the strategy and roadmap;

·develop a new specific guidance to promote EU-wide energy transition for the sectors based on techno-economic studies and cost-benefit/cost-efficiency analyses;

·facilitate and support cooperation at sea-basin and macro-regional scale by promoting inter-regional innovative partnerships through implementation of Smart Specialisation Strategies and the dedicated smart specialisation thematic platform on sustainable Blue Economy;

·develop guidance and a toolkit on the financing opportunities and investment environment in the sectors;

·set up an Energy Transition assistance mechanism to support stakeholders, and in particular innovative SMEs and projects, in scaling up and accessing public and private financing and funding;

·support a dynamic and better knowledge base through foresight (including technology), studies and data from the European Blue Economy Observatory;

·develop tailored skills partnerships under the Pacts for Skills to accompany the energy transition in the sector.

Likely impacts

The likely impact of the initiative is an increased commitment, collaboration and coordination of EU fisheries and aquaculture stakeholders to the energy transition. It is also likely to raise awareness about the need for innovation, strengthening the knowledge base and on the different funding possibilities.

The initiative is expected to accelerate the energy transition in the EU’s fisheries and aquaculture sectors and thereby contribute to increasing their socio-economic resilience and sustainability in the medium to long-term. It is also expected to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions from and the carbon footprint of EU fisheries and aquaculture.

Future monitoring

The initiative does not require new monitoring tools, but there should be an uptake in energy-efficient equipment, operations and technologies and the switch to clean renewable energy sources in the future as a performance indicators for fisheries and aquaculture in particular within the EMFAF operational programmes. This will complement the existing indicators on energy consumption and fuel energy efficiency in the sectors, which are collected annually as part of the EU multiannual programme for data collection 4 .

The Commission will also take stock of the measures proposed and follow up the developments based on the roadmap to be proposed in the initiative.

C. Better regulation

Impact assessment

The initiative does not create a new policy or new obligations under an existing policy. It focuses on setting out a strategy for the energy transition of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 involving all stakeholders. Therefore, the initiative does not require an impact assessment.

Consultation strategy

The initiative will be prepared using existing evidence gathered from stakeholders, advisory councils and previous contacts with industry and Member States. Stakeholder opinions from the online targeted consultation (which took place between 17 December 2021 and 14 March 2022 for the Common Fisheries Policy report) partially addressing the energy transition and will also be used as input. The Commission will also launch a specific targeted consultation with Member States and advisory councils.

Above all, the energy transition requires a long-term commitment of all stakeholders. Therefore, the initiative will propose measures to increase the long-term collaboration and exchange between the stakeholders and will enable a continuous consultation of the stakeholders. It will furthermore start a wider stakeholder consultation, during the initiative’s implementation. The initiative will include measures with a focus on deepening the cooperation and dialogue between stakeholders to further develop the energy transition. We will gather more views and evidence on specific measures, stakeholder engagement and the energy transition.

Why we are consulting?

We are consulting to get a better understanding of the needs and challenges of the energy transition in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in order to design a dynamic strategy to address them. This is also an opportunity to start an important discussion on the energy transition, announce the Commission’s main objectives in this area and align them with stakeholders’ expectations.

Target audience

All stakeholders concerned by the energy transition in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, in particular the fishing industry (individual fishers and representative organisations), aquaculture farmers and their organisations, non-governmental organisations, financial bodies, research and innovation bodies, Member States, regional and local public authorities, advisory councils, academic, scientific, social and economic partners, and the public.

(1)  See Fisheries: second package of crisis measures .
(2)  The EU’s fishing fleet can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions even though it is only a small part of the EU shipping fleet, and FuelEU maritime will only concern vessels over 5 000 gross tonnage and so does not specifically target fishing vessels.
(3)   The Paris Agreement | UNFCCC .
(4)   https://datacollection.jrc.ec.europa.eu/legislation/current