During the plenary session (5-8 July 2021), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), rapporteur, gives a press conference on the impact of offshore windmills on fisheries, in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This transcription is the result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Press conference by Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), rapporteur, on the impact of offshore windmills on fisheries

Introduction to the press conference

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, Yeah. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, good to see you all here and online. Today, the European Parliament will vote on a particularly important report for the European fishermen, agriculture, aquaculture producers and coastal communities. I have been appointed as rapporteur for the subject in 2019 by the press committee and the Fishery Committee started the report by, first of all, requesting the parliamentary services and particularly the study department for a study on the impact on the use of offshore wind and other marine renewables. The study department presented this study in September last year and on the basis of this study I presented a working paper in December last year and we had a draft report in the PECH committee on the 17th of March 2021.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, Over 180 amendments were tabled in the committee and we concluded the final negotiations on the report with 25 compromise amendments, and I was very happy that on the 25th of May, the Fisheries Committee voted upon this report with 26 votes in favour, just two abstentions and no votes against, which was very encouraging not only for the vote in the Fisheries Committee, of course, but also because we will have the votes later on today. And I expect that also the vote today will be very positive, given the outcome of the Fisheries Committee. As a matter of fact, I was informed this morning that there are no amendments on my report and that maybe one group, maybe one political group might abstain. It has not been decided yet, but when one political group has changed, it certainly will not be my political group. So I expect a large majority today for this report, which is very encouraging. This about the procedure, let's now have some remarks about the contents.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, I think it's important to note that the fishermen are the oldest users of the sea. They earn their money by fishing in the water. And the operations for the fishermen, of course, are very dynamic. Some fish close to the shore, others more in deeper seas. And anyhow, they require space that is very important. And of course, when you are familiar with the common fisheries policies, there are a lot of rules and a lot of obligations for fishermen to follow, not only in the Common Fisheries Policy, but also in the marine strategy framework, so they have to follow a lot of rules. And there are we face the difficulty with the expansion of the offshore wind development plans, because it is quite probable that there will be conflict, difficulties, on the space needed in the seas.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, As far as this offshore energy strategy is concerned, the electricity demand of the European Union will rise of about 30 percent and well, that means, of course, that we need more space and in all the increase of the capacity of the power will increase with some 25 percent from 12 gigawatts now to over 300 gigawatts in 2050. So it's a huge operation demanding a lot of efforts from many parties.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, Well, today already we have about 110 offshore wind farms with more than 5000 turbines, most of them in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. And well, you could say when you have a comparison with the space we will increase in the coming 30 years from, let's say, 1.5 to 2 the size of Luxembourg now to in the end, the Czech Republic. So it's a huge expansion and use of space. And there, of course, is the main issue, and this means that for the whole discussion, the maritime spatial planning is a key factor.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, And member states, they should designate historical fishing grounds and they should see what what can we do with those fishing grounds? For me, it is important that when we look at the possibilities for the fishermen, first of all, the spatial discussion does mean in the opinion of the Fisheries Committee, that fishermen and aquaculture producers, they should have a real say in the process of where those windmills are being built, not just talk a little bit : "let's see, what is your opinion? What's your opinion or do you think". No, a real say by the fishermen, where are these windmills going to be built in the seas? That is, I think, the main line of the report of the Fisheries Committee.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, For the moment, what we see is that there are some offshore wind parks, in particular in the United Kingdom, that allow fishermen to enter between those wind turbines and start fishing. However, despite this, let's say the fishermen do not use this possibility very often because, well, first of all, or risk, what will happen with your nets when you are fishing between those wind turbines, they might get stuck somewhere, but also maybe with cables, and the other issue is you can have an insurance when you fish between those wind turbines, but the insurance payments are very high. So in the end, it is not attractive for fishermen now to use the opportunity that is given in some states that you can fish between the wind turbines. In other states is just forbidden to fish there. In the report, you can also find some remarks about the risks we have been looking upon, because there are certainly some risks with building all these wind turbines in the seas.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, First of all, it starts with the process of the construction. In the construction phase, there will be a huge amount of noise. 130 decibel, which means this is like a plane starting from 30 metres away from you, which is a huge amount of decibel. There is some sort of reduction done by the constructors, they are using some air bubble screens to reduce the sound, but it is only with 10 decibel at maximum. So still, the sound is very strong and we do not know exactly what will happen to the fish. Will they stay? Will they go away? What happens to their hear system? Will they be temporarily or even will they stay permanently deaf? We have no adequate investigation material on that. So that is one risk, we are pointing at another risk, it could be that we have those electrical cables going from the wind turbines to the shore. What will these electromagnetic fields do to electrically sensitive fish like sharks? We don't know for sure what will happen.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, So one of the issues we are pointing at in our report is we need more things to know, not only about the construction phase, but also about the decommissioning, because we know that these wind turbines can be used for approximately 25 years. But what will be done after those 25 years? How is the decommissioning? What will stay in the bottom or will not stay in the bottom? What will be the effect of material that is staying into the bottom? As a matter of fact, we have no data, no investigations on that. And we consider that is also very important because we take a decision for many, many decades and we still lack several informations on that. That was the outcome of the study of the study department of our parliament, as I just mentioned to you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, So, as I said, we need to know more about several uncertainties, and in the end, the Fisheries Committee has stated: "there should be no negative impact on the ecosystem, there should be no negative impact on the marine life system and on the biodiversity, and to find it out, we need more study and we need also environmental studies". And in this respect, ladies and gentlemen, I was very happy to hear the commissioner yesterday evening, in the exchange of views here in the plenary, because the commissioner was very clear: she stated "hey, listen, we agree. Should these offshore wind farms be built in the sea? We need an assessment on the environment. And this is in line also with what the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has decided just a few weeks ago on windmills built on land sites.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, There should be an adequate environmental assessment before the whole process starts. And this is very good to hear from the commission, that they agree with us on this important aspect. Apart from more study on some risks in the field of deconstruction and also of the decommissioning, we also need to know more about the social-economical effects and the economical effects for fishery communities. What is going to happen with fishery communities when a lot of windmills are built close to the shore? Therefore, I will visit myself in two weeks a newly constructed plant near Saint-Malo in the French coastline. They are planning there a huge park, but fishermen are worried what is going to happen with our fishing grounds.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, So not only more data, more investigation, but also on other aspect we have mentioned in our report that is about marine protected areas: the Fisheries Committee has stated quite clearly that we should investigate, can we not build offshore wind parks in marine protected areas because in marine protected areas fishing is partly forbidden, sometimes fully forbidden. And when you could build there those wind turbines, then you have, well, a good issue then the fishermen are not very much in difficulties because they cannot fish there. And, in the meantime, when you build out those wind turbines, it could be good for the environment. And this is also very good to hear.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, Yesterday evening in the debate with the commission, the commissioner said quite clearly "yes, we should check, we should have a look at the possibility of building those turbines, wind turbines in the marine protected area. So that was a second, let's say, very good outcome of the debate yesterday evening that on this issue, the commission also agreed with the Fisheries Committee, let's find out, can we put wind turbines in those marine protected areas?

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, So to give a summary, ladies and gentlemen, about the key messages of my report and the statements of the Fisheries Committee, first of all, we say that the fishermen should have a real say in determining what are we going to do with these new offshore wind parks in the various seas. They should be given a decisive voice in the form of an effective participation. I think that is really important to note, and furthermore, we say "hey, when we are going to plan for the building and construction of those offshore wind turbines in the seas, there should be no negative impacts on marine life, biodiversity, and therefore, we say we need to have an environmental assessment in line, of course, with the so-called precautionary principle, which you can find in article one, line one of the European treaty, we take only decisions when we have adequate knowledge, when we have adequate information. That is the core business of the precautionary principle.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, So now, ladies and gentlemen, the member states are handing over to the European Commission in these very months, as we speak, their maritime spatial planning for the next 20 to 30 years, a huge operation with a lot of impact. The European Commission will have a look at those plans and decide whether they can be approved or maybe should be adopted or not, and we will see the proposals of the commission and the judgement of the commission, I guess, somewhere by the end of this year, which, of course, will not only be brought forward to the member states, but also to us here in the parliament, and we will follow the commission very closely on what they have said yesterday evening, in particular on these environmental assessments and on the possibility of building wind turbines in these maritime marine protected areas.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, And, of course, in the decision that is a cooperation with the fishermen. In this way, the fishermen get an equal playing field, an equal level of playing with the multinationals who are going to build those wind parks in the next decades. Well, this is, as far as I'm concerned, some introduction. And of course, I am happy to take questions from you. Thank you very much.

Press conference by Peter van DALEN (EPP, NL), rapporteur, on the impact of offshore windmills on fisheries

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