Filenews 1 February 2026 - by Maria Damanaki* and Christodoulos Charalambous**
"Laws that exist only on paper achieve nothing." This is not a slogan. It reflects the reality described by small-scale fishermen and highlights a wide gap between the European Union's commitments and their implementation at sea.
More than a decade after the last reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the EU is debating again whether to redesign it, even though its framework is fit for purpose and delivers sustainable results in fisheries, when properly implemented.
What continues to fail is its implementation. The most striking example is the legal commitment to end overfishing by 2020, a deadline that remains unmet.
Nowhere is this gap more vividly reflected than in the Mediterranean and especially in Cyprus and Greece, where stocks are increasingly depleted, due to the accelerating consequences of the climate crisis and the spread of alien species. The Mediterranean remains the most overfished sea in the world, and small-scale fishermen are directly experiencing these consequences.
However, Cypriot fishermen are not calling for looser rules or a new policy. They call for effective implementation of existing legislation and support from national authorities. Without them, the future of fishing as a profession is at risk. If Europe delays substantial action until another protracted reform is completed, it risks losing the next generation of fishermen and stripping coastal economies bare.
The experience of Cypriot and Greek fishermen reflects a wider European issue. Before any review of the CAP, Europe must assess the real gap, which is not found in the law itself, but in its uneven implementation and enforcement. Calls for reform are fuelled by familiar pressures: Environmental guarantees are increasingly presented as obstacles to economic viability and fleet renewal. The reform is presented as a means of modernising vessels and reducing bureaucracy.
This approach, however, ignores the lessons of the past. Europe has been in the same place before. Overcapacity and inadequate controls drove fish stocks to the brink of collapse, forcing painful interventions that cost public resources and livelihoods. For small-scale fishermen in the Mediterranean, these effects are not theoretical. They experience them every day, through decreasing catches, rising costs and intensifying uncertainty.
The Common Fisheries Policy pays off when it is implemented
The data show that where the CAP was implemented, it worked. According to assessments by the European Commission, the share of stocks subject to overfishing in the North-East Atlantic has fallen from around 40% in 2013 to just over 22% by 2025. In the Mediterranean, the corresponding percentage decreased from 70% to 51% in the same period. These improvements are closely linked to the implementation of science-based catch limits, fishing effort limitations and capacity controls under the CFP.
Economic and social data confirm the same trend. EU fishing fleets have become more efficient and more profitable over the last decade. Vessels now generate higher average incomes, while earnings per full-time fisherman have increased by more than a quarter since 2013. In its 2023 policy communication, the Commission concluded that the CFP remains an adequate legal framework, with the real gap in its implementation and enforcement. In its 2023 Political Communication, the European Commission concluded that the CFP remains an adequate legal framework, with the real gap in its implementation and enforcement.
Those involved in the 2013 reform understand why this matters. The revised policy marked a clear shift away from overcapacity and short-term decisions, towards a science-based approach. The European Commission's own evaluations show that this approach has yielded results wherever it has been applied. Parts of the EU fleet became more profitable, labour productivity improved and several fish stocks recovered. The CFP remains the EU's most powerful tool to reverse the decline at sea.
Cyprus Presidency of the Council: Time to implement
This debate is taking place as Cyprus takes over the Presidency of the Council of the EU, at a time when choices made in Brussels have direct consequences at sea.
Taking over the Presidency entails both responsibilities and opportunities. It offers the opportunity to shape the debate in the direction of the functional application of the existing rules, and to address the current implementation problems. This is where the credibility of the CAP will be tested.
Reviewing the CAP at this time may send the wrong signal. It may imply that missed deadlines have no consequences and that agreed rules are optional. For fishermen, it will prolong uncertainty at a time when stability is already fragile. For Europe, it will undermine confidence in its ability to deliver on what it agrees to.
The EU was not created to produce endless procedures or delay action through repetitive legislative cycles. Its purpose is to offer common solutions to common problems and to support people and communities where national action is not sufficient. The last reform of the CFP was based on a simple principle: healthy fish stocks are the basis of sustainable fisheries. Sustainability and livelihoods move forward together or do not progress at all. This principle is already reflected in the agreed European framework. The challenge now is its implementation.
Fishing is a clear test of this promise. The legal framework and the tools exist. What Europe needs now is the political will to deliver on the commitments it has already made.
* Former European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
** President of the Pancyprian Organization of Professional Fishermen
(The article was originally published in Politico.eu under the title: "A credibility test for Europe's fisheries policy")
