Stop the 1% of fishing giants that destroy 99% of fishers! 

To the Presidents of the European Parliament’s largest left, centre, and right groups which will determine the outcome: Ms Iratxe García Pérez (Socialists & Democrats), Mrs Valérie Hayer (Renew), Mr. Manfred Weber (European Peoples Party)   

The EU is faced with a pressing issue: our marine ecosystems are in a catastrophic environmental condition. EU waters are the most trawled in the world, fish stocks are overfished and fishing jobs are literally disappearing. Between 1970 and 2022 the number of fishers has fallen to a quarter of what it was in France and Spain, to a fifth in Germany, and to an eleventh in Denmark. 

This social and environmental tragedy is the result of public decisions: 55% of the fish are caught by only 1% of the boats!  

1% of the European fishing fleet is larger than 33 meters in length.  

These 1% of giants are putting 99% of European fishers at risk. 

These gigantic vessels that can reach up to 145 meters in length are inflicting the most harm to the ocean as they mainly use highly destructive fishing gear such as bottom trawling which ravages life on the seafloor. 

Without public subsidies, these vessels would have disappeared by now. 

These 1% represent only 638 fishing vessels out of more than 60,000 fishing vessels in the EU.  

This means we can stop them.  

The solution is simple:  

• Remove the 1% of fishing giants from the fishing fleet 
• Stop every euro of public money going to mega industrial corporations except for money allocating to dismantling the vessels 
• Back the 99% of fishers who create jobs and provide for Europe 
• Help fishing vessels below 33 meters in length and which use destructive fishing gear such as trawling to switch to low-impact fishing.  

And instead of watching the harmful impacts of your bad decisions, watch the benefits they will produce: the ocean will repopulate, European fishing ports will come back to life, fish markets will regenerate, jobs in the fishing sector will grow.  

The EU budget for 2028–2034 is being negotiated now. This chance will not arise again for the next seven years.  

We’re calling on you to ensure that your three groups, which together for a majority in Parliament, finally take a stand for Europe’s fishers, for a sustainable economy, for our food sovereignty and for a healthy ocean.