The European Commission published its position on European eel on 28 October 2022 in its document COM(2022) 559 final. Based on the ICES advice for 2022 (not 2023) for zero catch and the advice expressed by the different fisheries advisory councils of the different maritime areas, the EC proposed the following resolution: “The Commission proposes for 2023 to extend the closure of all fisheries targeting eel from three to six consecutive months in marine and adjacent brackish waters of the North-East Atlantic (including the Baltic Sea) and the Mediterranean Sea (but excluding the Black Sea). If implemented during the appropriate period, the six-month closure would cover the vast majority of glass eels and migratory silver eels, thus providing a higher level of protection for the eel stock in the waters affected by the closure.

In fact, this decision takes little account of the various opinions issued by the Fisheries Advisory Councils indicating that the objectives of reducing fishing effort had been achieved in accordance with Regulation 1100/2007, while the effects of human activity other than fishing had been only slightly mitigated. It would indeed be illusory to think of recovering this type of population if the objectives of the various framework directives: the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive are constantly being pushed back. The destruction of our aquatic environments continues in Europe and the Mediterranean basin in a context of climate change and multiple tensions over water use. To focus on fishing without addressing the destruction of aquatic habitats is a mismanagement to the detriment of this species and also of the fishing communities who live off it and who have been reporting this degradation of our aquatic environments for nearly 40 years.