The legal fight for Europe’s marine protected areas
The newly formed MPA Legal Coalition is driving strategic legal action to help ensure Europe’s marine protected areas deliver effective protection for ocean life.
The European Union has some of the strongest nature laws in the world. Yet across Europe’s seas, too many areas designated for protection still allow activities that damage the very habitats and species they were created to safeguard. Sometimes these designations only really protect a small part of the site or a limited range of activities.
Bottom trawling is one of the most destructive forms of fishing and drags heavy metal gear and nets across the seafloor, but it continues in many marine protected areas. These include sites in the Natura 2000 network that are supposed to be protected by European conservation laws.
This gap between legal promise and reality is why the MPA Legal Coalition has been established. Bringing together eleven environmental organizations, the Coalition fights to ensure that Europe’s existing marine conservation laws are implemented and enforced. Its message is simple: protected areas must be protected in practice.
WHY LEGAL ACCOUNTABILITY IS NEEDED
Marine protected areas are one of the most important tools governments have to restore ocean life, build resilient ecosystems and meet global biodiversity commitments. They are also essential for supporting coastal communities, in particular small-scale fishers, by helping the recovery of fish stocks both inside marine protected areas and elsewhere through the ‘spillover’ effect, and through only permitting less invasive fishing techniques.
The diverse, significant benefits are why the European Union (EU) has committed to protecting at least 30% of its seas through effectively managed protected and conserved areas by 2030. But designation alone is not enough. Protection targets are only meaningful if the areas counted towards them are effectively managed.
At present, that is not the case. Europe’s seas are under severe pressure while damaging activities persist in protected areas. Official assessments show that good environmental status has not been achieved, while physical disturbance of the seabed remains widespread. Bottom trawling is a major driver of that disturbance, ploughing the seafloor and damaging vital habitats such as reefs, sandbanks and seagrass beds.
The problem is not simply a lack of legal frameworks. In Europe, governments already have clear legal obligations under EU nature legislation, including the Habitats Directive, to prevent activities that undermine the conservation objectives of protected areas. The failure lies in implementation, enforcement and accountability.
Unlike other industries, fishing is generally permitted in practice without the assessment required under the Habitats Directive being carried out. Governments should allow activities only after having checked their compatibility with the ecological features and conservation objectives of a site. Legal action can close the gap by requiring authorities to apply the rules that governments have already agreed to follow.
A COALITION BUILT TO ENFORCE EXISTING LAWS
The MPA Legal Coalition unites organizations working across Europe: Blue Marine Foundation, BUND, ClientEarth, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, Défense des Milieux Aquatiques, Doggerland, DUH, Environmental Justice Foundation, Manche Nature, Oceana and Seas At Risk.
Our members connect national legal actions into a coordinated European strategy. With every case strengthening the next, the Coalition is building a wave of accountability that governments cannot ignore.
This approach is constructive. Litigation is not a substitute for good policy; it is a tool to make law and policy work for the benefit of the environment, coastal communities and European citizens. When governments fail to apply existing laws, legal action can hold them accountable, create deadlines for action and ensure that public commitments translate into measurable outcomes.
EUROPE’S LEGAL BATTLEGROUNDS
The Coalition’s launch follows a surge in legal action at the state level. Members of the Coalition have submitted legal complaints to the European Commission against Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain for allowing bottom trawling and other destructive fishing activities inside Natura 2000 marine areas. Recent victories show that change is possible. Rulings linked to the Dutch Dogger Bank protected area and the Banc des Flandres site in France have reinforced that marine protected areas must be effectively managed. They also send an important signal to policymakers: existing laws to prevent harmful activities in vulnerable marine areas must be respected.
These cases matter beyond individual sites. Laws across the EU, and to some extent the UK, are largely the same so these wins help define what meaningful protection looks like across the region.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
Success means more than winning individual cases. For us, it would mean governments setting clear conservation objectives for protected sites, assessing the impacts of fishing and other activities, and excluding harmful practices where they undermine those objectives. It would mean the European Commission using its role as guardian of the treaties to ensure consistent implementation across Member States. And it would mean civil society, scientists and legal experts working together to make marine protection happen.
Stronger implementation would also benefit the wider ocean agenda. The target to protect at least 30% of seas by 2030 is a crucial political commitment, but its value depends on quality as well as quantity. Counting poorly managed areas towards protection targets will not restore ecosystems or rebuild public trust. Effective management, monitoring and enforcement are what turn a designation into real-world protection.
FROM PROMISE TO PROTECTION
For governments, the path forward is clear. Destructive activities such as bottom trawling should be excluded where they damage the habitats and species a site is meant to protect. Measures should be transparent, science-based and enforceable. Anything less risks turning protected areas into empty bureaucracy and “paper parks” that exist only on a map.
Clear rules and accountability can make marine protected areas more effective, more credible and easier to manage. But it is important that all EU Member States and the United Kingdom buy into it. Fish, ecosystems and fishing fleets cross national boundaries and operate across each other’s waters, meaning we need a holistic, coordinated approach.
Europe must ensure that the 30% is not protected in name only. We face a very real crisis in biodiversity, and governments need to make good on the promises made. Let’s halt the decline and leave the world in a better state than we found it.
About the authors
John Condon is Lead Lawyer of the Marine Ecosystems team at ClientEarth. He specializes in the laws relating to marine conservation, including species protection, marine protected areas, and the conservation of marine habitats. John is qualified to practice as a lawyer in Ireland and in England and Wales. He holds an LLM in Environmental Law and Policy from University College London and an LLB in Law from Trinity College, the University of Dublin.
Dr Tom Appleby is Blue Marine’s Head of Governance and Legal Affairs and started life as an English commercial property solicitor but has worked in the marine environmental sector for over twenty years. He has been deeply involved with the Blue Marine Foundation since its inception. Tom has an MA in Geography from the University of Edinburgh, is a solicitor (non-practising, qualified in England and Wales) and has a DPhil in marine environmental law awarded by the University of the West of England.
Marie Colombier is Senior Ocean Policy Adviser at the Environmental Justice Foundation, where her role centers on crafting and executing advocacy strategies to protect marine biodiversity in Europe. With a professional background that spans over a decade, her expertise lies in developing public policy and driving strategic communication initiatives.
Header image: Birds flock around a fishing boat on the ocean at sunset. Source: Unsplash.
About the authors
John Condon is Lead Lawyer of the Marine Ecosystems team at ClientEarth. He specializes in the laws relating to marine conservation, including species protection, marine protected areas, and the conservation of marine habitats. John is qualified to practice as a lawyer in Ireland and in England and Wales. He holds an LLM in Environmental Law and Policy from University College London and an LLB in Law from Trinity College, the University of Dublin.
Dr Tom ApplebyDr Tom Appleby is Blue Marine’s Head of Governance and Legal Affairs and started life as an English commercial property solicitor but has worked in the marine environmental sector for over twenty years. He has been deeply involved with the Blue Marine Foundation since its inception. Tom has an MA in Geography from the University of Edinburgh, is a solicitor (non-practising, qualified in England and Wales) and has a DPhil in marine environmental law awarded by the University of the West of England.
Marie ColombierMarie Colombier is Senior Ocean Policy Adviser at the Environmental Justice Foundation, where her role centers on crafting and executing advocacy strategies to protect marine biodiversity in Europe. With a professional background that spans over a decade, her expertise lies in developing public policy and driving strategic communication initiatives.
