EU Vision 2040 for fisheries and aquaculture

Call for evidence: Fisheries and aquaculture – Vision 2040

Update

The European Commission is seeking feedback to help shape its 2040 Vision for fisheries and aquaculture via its Have Your Say webpage until 24 March 2026. The 2040 Vision sets a 15-year strategic framework to guide policy and address systemic challenges affecting the fisheries, aquaculture, and processing value chain. The 2040 Vision will also provide the overarching framework for the European Union (EU) strategy on fisheries external action.

Impacted Products

Fisheries and aquaculture

What is changing?

As announced in the European Ocean Pact, the EU is inviting contributions to help shape its 2040 Vision for fisheries and aquaculture.

The 2040 Vision for fisheries and aquaculture complements the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, but for the fishery sector.

Agriculture and fisheries face similar systemic challenges in ensuring sustainability and long-term competitiveness, food security, and preserving resources. The European Commission seeks to address these challenges through simplification, digitalisation, innovation, and coherence with its other initiatives.

The vision will provide an overarching strategic direction for all EU action in the area of fisheries and aquaculture. It will also provide the overarching framework for the EU strategy on fisheries external action, which will be adopted at the same time as the 2040 Vision.

Why?

Seventy per cent of aquatic food consumed in the EU today is imported. The EU aims to strengthen the sustainability of imports while improving the competitiveness and resilience of its fisheries and aquaculture sectors, including processing.

Timeline

The call for evidence closes on 24 March 2026. The European Commission intends to publish the 2040 Vision in the autumn of 2026.

Recommended Actions

This call is part of a series of public consultations that the EU will hold on many of the initiatives foreseen in the Ocean Pact. These are also open to feedback by stakeholders in non-EU countries.

Non-EU stakeholders are encouraged to participate in these consultations and give feedback via the European Commission’s Have Your Say webpage Fisheries and aquaculture – Vision 2040 until 24 March 2026.

Stakeholders wishing to respond must be registered. Those who do not already have an account will first need to Create an EU login account, then register their organisation on the EU Transparency register.

Background

The 2040 Vision will complement the EU’s Vision for Agriculture and Food and build on the Fishers of the Future foresight study, the European Ocean Pact, and the ongoing evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy Regulation. It also fits within the Commission’s current agenda for simplification, the proposed EU budget for 2028–2034, the Competitiveness Compass, the Union of Skills, the 2030 Consumer Agenda, the Bioeconomy Strategy, and the Nature Restoration Regulation.

Resources

Sources