“For 18 years now, the European Parliament has recognised the cormorant problem, and yet today the EU is practically at the same point as in 2008. While the population has reached around two million birds and consumes about 300,000 tonnes of fish every year, our fishermen and fish farmers continue to lose more than 350 million euros annually. Instead of acting decisively, Brussels is once again presenting concepts, coordination bodies and dialogue platforms, in other words exactly those bureaucratic measures that have so far failed to solve the problem.
The reality is clear: the cormorant is no longer a marginal phenomenon worthy of protection, but a major economic and ecological factor that poses a serious threat to fish stocks, aquaculture and entire livelihoods along our coasts. With around 200,000 breeding pairs, more than half of these waterbirds breed in the Baltic Sea region, while 120,000 breeding pairs are found on the North Sea. This makes the problem particularly acute for Germany’s fishermen.
If even the EU admits that national measures remain ineffective and that a Europe-wide approach is necessary, then what is finally needed is the political will for consistent action, including effective population control. Anything else is just another chapter of European inaction at the expense of our fishermen.”
AfD Member of the European Parliament and ESN coordinator in the Committee on Fisheries Siegbert Droese added:
“Although an exemption under Article 9 of the EU Birds Directive allows Member States to kill cormorants, this is a cumbersome procedure. Member States must, for example, first demonstrate in each individual case that serious damage has occurred and that all other deterrence measures have been exhausted, a costly undertaking, especially for aquaculture. It is high time that the protected status of cormorants be removed from the EU Birds Directive!”
