Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002240/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Nicolás González Casares (S&D)
In its strategy on offshore renewable energy (ORE), the Commission sets ambitious targets that demonstrate the potential of OREs to help achieve climate neutrality objectives. However, as stated in the Renewable Energy Directive, it is crucial that efforts be made to ensure that the implementation of these developments is compatible with pre-existing uses.
In its recent reply to the Commission on the economic, social and ecological impacts of OREs, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) notes that, based on its review of the available studies, it appears that for all impact types, there were more studies reporting negative impacts on fisheries than positive.
What is more, ICES identifies five classes of data required to assess the economic and social impacts of wind farms on fisheries, which are currently ‘not collected or collated at sufficiently high resolution’.
This is in addition to the European Court of Auditors’ 2023 report, which warned that it had not found ‘any quantification of the key economic effects on fisheries resulting from ORE development that had been prepared by the Commission’. In light of the above:
- 1.Will the Commission draw up the study referred to by the European Court of Auditors?
- 2.What measures will it take to correct the shortcomings identified by ICES in order to be able to assess specific and cumulative effects on fisheries?
Submitted: 4.6.2025