During the plenary session (24-25 March 2021) in the European Parliament in Brussels, Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), rapporteur, gives a short presentation of his report on Impact on fisheries of marine litter. Follows a statement by Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. (This transcription is a result of an authomatic process, please check against delivery).

Brussels

statement

plenary session

environmental protection (T)

reduction of the environmental impact of plastics (T)

protection of ocean (T)

CHABAUD, Catherine (Renew, FR)

SINKEVIČIUS, Virginijus (LT, EC)

Impact on fisheries of marine litter: report by Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), and statement by Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment

SOUNDBITE (Original), Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), Madam Chair, Commissioner, dear colleagues, first of all, I'd like to share with you, I have here a handful of sand that I collected in a Mediterranean beach two years ago. There are probably more micro particles and micro plastics in this jar than a silica. I am here because I feel helpless, but I also feel responsibility. The same I felt 30 years ago when I found wasteland in the middle of the Atlantic. Tonight, I am proud to present to you my first European Parliament report on this problem, the impact of marine waste on fishing and agriculture.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), This is also a way for me to celebrate twenty four years from my first trip around the world alone, an experience which taught me that we can have dreams bigger than ourselves, including saving the ocean, our common heritage. Now, this challenge is enormous. And because we have we also have to face the challenge, the climate challenge. We're speaking about eight million tons of plastic that wind up in the ocean each year. This goes from micro and nano plastic particle particles all the way to lost containers in the middle of the sea, 5000 billion micro particles are dispersed in the sea. One million marine animals could be affected. 80 percent of this waste comes from land, since water in our rivers is already highly, highly polluted by chemicals.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), So on land, we only have one percent of this waste. The rest is taken out to sea and even as deep as 10000 metres deep in the great ocean trenches. So this affects our environment, our fissuring resources, but also the activity of fishermen and aquaculture's because they need to deal with these this waste that winds up in their fishing nets or caught in and the propellers of their boats. Imagine a farmer, though, every time he hits the ground with his plough, finds a handful of waste.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), The economic impact would affect between one and five percent of the profits of this sector. It is gigantic. I would like to point out there's a paradox here. There's something we're sure of on beaches, 27 percent of the plastic waste we find comes from fishing or agriculture. Sometimes they are washed away during storms or bad weather, but they are also fishing nets that stem from illegal fishery fishing as they continue to fish in this way. And up until I reached this plenary, I was not allowed to include this in my report. I said this type of pollution didn't exist. This is a bitter pill to swallow. When I see that in this institution, sometimes we don't have any common sense.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), Now, what are the solutions? They need to be systemic because the problem is systemic. We need to develop them partly at sea, but also and greatly here on dry land. Here are some examples. We need to reinforce awareness, especially on the effect of nano and micro. Plastic particles on the ecosystems, on our fishing resources and on human health. Second, we need to further integrate the sea land link in European policies, particularly when waste and water management.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), Three, we need to increase the economic the circular economy in the fishing sector, and we need to simplify the recycling of plastics. And we need to have better access to bio sources. And we need to strengthen the directive on single use plastics and polystyrene, which is useful, but it winds up at sea. And also we need to make it attractive for fishermen to bring their waste onto dry land.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Catherine CHABAUD (Renew, FR), Finally, we need to act against illegal dumping of waste and to collect them in collecting centres, particularly near rivers and estuaries. And I have a proposal to make. We could do as we've already seen in in different cities. We could put this plaque near drains and gutters saying don't waste and don't throw your waste in here because the sea starts here at the European Parliament or at the European Commission, Dear Commissioner.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, President, Honourable members, Madam Chabaud, I would like to congratulate you for this very rich and comprehensive report, which not only fully reflects the enormous global challenge of marine litter, but also offers solutions and perspective for change. I cannot agree more with those findings of the report that assess the dimension of marine litter and the detrimental impact it has on marine ecosystems. While the report correctly underlines that more than 80 percent of the marine waste stems from activities on land, we very much welcome that the report covers both sea and land based sources of pollution.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries,  All this waste is not only a direct threat to our oceans and seas and the rich biodiversity, but also to the future of the fisheries sectors and thus of all fishermen and women who go to the sea day by day and provide us with healthy food from the ocean. And all costs of marine litter to fisheries in the EU are estimated at 57 million euros. Only a clean, healthy, productive and biologically diverse marine environment can provide the basis for the important work of our fisheries shellfish gatherers, aquaculture producers and ultimately satisfy the needs of the consumers.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. When it comes to the responses to the threats from marine litter, I agree that a holistic approach is necessary. In this respect, close and constructive cooperation between the different stakeholders is key to fully ensure and exploit the synergies between the various legislations already in place. Indeed, we are now in the important piece of the implementation of the both the Single-Use Plastics and the Port Reception Facilities Directive. Both will contribute to significant reduction of marine pollution in our seas.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. Let me focus tonight on three key points, which you also mentioned in your report. Firstly, with the legislation already in place and with the additional ambitious actions foreseen in the Circular Economy Action Plan, the biodiversity strategy and the upcoming Zero Action Plan, Zero Pollution Action Plan, we are addressing many, if not most, of your recommendations. Under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, we established the first threshold value for which a little last September.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. This means that a beach will need to have less than 20 little items for every 100 metres of coastline to reach good environmental status. More of these values will be agreed in the near future for surface water, little seabed litter, as well as micro plastics. This will also contribute to achieve the objectives defined in the single Use Plastics Directive and the Circular Economy Action Plan. We are now embarking on the review of this Marine Strategy Framework Directive building on this achievements.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Building on this achievements, we will need to address the shortcomings we identified, notably concerning the determination of good environmental status and further mainstream the directive objectives into other policies. Moreover, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, which we will adopt in May, will strengthen our resolve to fight pollution of all kinds, including at sea, and to reduce it to levels that are no longer harmful, both for humans and biodiversity. To do so, we will look at strengthening the implementation of existing instruments and where necessary, review them.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. We will address pollutants of emerging concern, and we will also set up an integrated framework for zero pollution monitoring and outlook as regards micro plastics. We have already made progress towards the restriction where they are intentionally added to products. We are currently agency. We are currently assessing the recent opinion by the European Chemicals Agency on this matter. We are also advancing work on intentional releases of micro plastics and will consider labelling, standardisation, certification and regulatory measures.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. Secondly, I fully agree that there are still important knowledge gaps and that research and innovation play a crucial role here in this context. I want to highlight the oceans, seas and water emission under our Horizon Europe programme. Its objective is to scale up solutions and accelerate the transition towards restoring the health of our marine and aquatic ecosystems. Furthermore, other parts of Horizon Europe will be looking at improving fisheries monitoring and control capabilities by developing, for instance, new technological solutions, including the improvement of fishing gear.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. In parallel, our ongoing work on ocean observation aims at improving the collection of more coherent, better and less costly marine data, which is the backbone of an effective ocean policy. Thirdly, marine litter has no borders, and today even the most remote islands are polluted by marine litter. And therefore I agree that we need to step up our international efforts. The Commission continues to lead efforts at international level to reach a global agreement on plastics to prevent and reduce plastic pollution. The agreement would cover the entire lifecycle of plastic, especially the upstream part and in place the focus on prevention.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. We are working towards the next session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in February next year, where we hope that an intergovernmental negotiation negotiating committee will be established. At the formal negotiation process launched, we adopted also new rules on the export import and introduce shipment of plastic waste following the agreement under the Basel Convention. This is an important milestone in fighting plastic pollution. The export of plastic is not only allowed under very strict conditions, the export of unsorted plastic waste to non OECD countries is completely banned.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Before closing, I also want to recall that we are actively engaging with our fishermen and women to raise awareness and promote best practises regarding the collection of marine litter. Our current and future European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund provides for funding of fishing for letterer schemes. In the current period, a total of 22 million euros was allocated from the IMFF to such schemes in seven coastal member states. And we are actively encouraging member states to promote such schemes in their national programmes for the new programming period.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. We hope we can also count on your support in promoting the schemes and in your contacts with the sector and, of course, your national authorities. Finally, let me once again congratulate and thank you for your excellent work on this very important issue, which indeed deserves our full attention and commitment.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, We all have to join forces to ensure that our oceans remain clean and healthy so that they can continue to provide us with oxygen to absorb CO2 and to be our ally in the fight against climate change, to feed us and to be the foundation of our coastal communities, prosperity and our citizens well-being. And I'm looking forward to working closely with you and with your constituencies to add this important touch of blue to our green deal. Thank you.