Eleven environmental groups have joined forces to push for enforcing EU marine protected areas, arguing that destructive fishing still happens inside zones meant to shield ocean life.
Enforcing EU marine protected areas is now the central mission of a new group called the MPA Legal Coalition. The coalition launched this month in Brussels. It brings together eleven organizations from across Europe, including Oceana, ClientEarth, Blue Marine Foundation, and the Environmental Justice Foundation.
The European Union has some of the strongest nature laws in the world. Yet many of its marine protected areas still allow bottom trawling, a fishing method that drags heavy nets across the seafloor. This practice can destroy habitats that took decades to form, and it is one of the main reasons the coalition sees enforcing EU marine protected areas as so urgent.
A marine protected area is a section of ocean set aside to limit damaging activities. The idea is simple. Give marine life room to recover, and fish populations, coral, and seagrass meadows can bounce back.
The coalition’s work builds on legal action taken a year ago. Environmental groups filed formal complaints against six EU countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Those complaints accused the countries of allowing harmful fishing inside protected zones, and the European Commission has yet to respond.
The new coalition plans to press the European Commission to open infringement proceedings, a formal process the EU uses when a member country fails to follow shared laws, against countries not meeting their obligations. It will also support legal cases at the national level. The goal is to turn scattered lawsuits into one coordinated strategy for enforcing EU marine protected areas across the entire bloc.
This approach has already shown promise. Courts in the Netherlands and France recently ruled in favor of stronger ocean protections. A Dutch court blocked a rule that would have given trawlers a free pass in the Dogger Bank protected area, one of the North Sea’s most valuable habitats, according to ClientEarth.
The MPA Legal Coalition is turning scattered national lawsuits into a coordinated continent-wide strategy for enforcing EU marine protected areas, pressing the European Commission to open formal infringement proceedings against member states that are failing to meet their legal obligations to protect ocean habitats. Photo by Marco on Pexels.
A French court delivered a similar result for the Banc des Flandres site. It ruled that conservation measures under the Natura 2000 network, the EU’s system of protected sites, must actually work, not just exist on paper. Both rulings support the coalition’s broader argument that enforcing EU marine protected areas is a legal obligation, not a suggestion.
The stakes are significant. About 93% of Europe’s marine ecosystems face pressure from human activity, according to the European Environment Agency. Picture nearly every stretch of EU coastline touched in some way by fishing, pollution, or development.
Bottom trawling remains one of the biggest culprits. Commission data show that 79% of the coastal seabed is physically disturbed, largely due to this practice. That is roughly four out of every five miles of seafloor near shore bearing the marks of dragged nets.
The timing of the coalition’s launch matters too. The European Commission is currently reviewing the Birds and Habitats Directives, the legal backbone of EU nature protection. The coalition argues that enforcing EU marine protected areas consistently will decide whether that review leads to real change or another round of unmet targets.
There is also a practical argument for stricter rules. Coalition members say that banning bottom trawling in protected areas would give fishers a clear, simple standard to follow. That would cut down on the cost and complexity of monitoring compliance, a point that fits neatly with the Commission’s own push to reduce red tape for both regulators and industry.
The EU has pledged to protect 30% of its seas by 2030, a target shared under the global Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework. Reaching that goal means more than drawing lines on a map. It means enforcing EU marine protected areas so the fishing policies inside those lines are actually followed.
The coalition’s members plan to spend their first year advancing ongoing legal cases and feeding evidence into the Commission’s review of habitat laws. They also aim to build stronger ties between scientists, lawyers, and coastal communities.
For now, the message from the coalition is direct. Rules already exist to protect Europe’s seas. Enforcing EU marine protected areas properly, coalition members argue, would finally let those protections do the job they were designed for.
