The European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) is one of the five European structural and investment funds (*). The EMFAF supports the EU common fisheries policy (CFP), the EU maritime policy and the EU agenda for international ocean governance and it provides support for developing innovative projects that ensure the sustainable use of aquatic and maritime resources.

As a global ocean actor and a major producer of seafood, the EU has a responsibility to protect and sustainably use the oceans and their resources. It is also in the EU's socio-economic interest to guarantee the availability of food supplies, the competitiveness of the maritime economy and the livelihood of coastal communities.

The fund helps achieve sustainable fisheries and conserve marine biological resources.

The EMFAF is programmed for the period 2021-2027 with a budget of €6.108 billion, of which €5.311 billion is provided through national programmes co-financed by the EU budget and EU countries and €797 million is provided directly by the Commission.

[*] The European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund.

The EMFF had six main priorities

• Sustainable fisheries (26.26%). To strike a balance between human fishing capacity and available natural resources, to fish more selectively and to reduce unintended catches.
• Sustainable aquaculture (19.78%). To make the sector more successful and competitive by focusing on quality, health and safety, along with eco-friendly production; and to provide consumers with high-quality, highly nutritional and trustworthy products.
• Implementing the CFP (19.27%). To improve data collection, scientific knowledge, control and enforcement of fisheries legislation.
• Marketing and processing (18.96%). To improve market organisation, market intelligence and consumer information in the world’s largest seafood market.
• Employment and territorial cohesion (9.72%). To help coastal and inland fisheries and aquaculture communities gain more value for their products and diversify their economies into other maritime fields, such as tourism or direct sales.
• Implementing the integrated maritime policy (1.17%). To improve marine knowledge, better plan activities at sea, promote cooperation in maritime surveillance and manage sea basins according to their individual needs.

The remaining 4.84% consisted of technical assistance to help Member States implement the above priorities.

The EMFAF entered into force in July 2021, so at the time of going to press, most EMFAF programmes had not yet been adopted. Thus, sufficient data is not yet available to describe the definitive allocation of EMFAF funding. This section, therefore, focuses on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), which covered the 2014-2020 period.

The EMFF did not prescribe how every cent should be spent. Instead, the EU allocated a share of the total budget to each Member State and left it to the national authorities – and local communities – to choose the projects and solutions that worked best for them.

In this way, the EMFF was supporting local initiatives aimed at rebuilding fish stocks, phasing out discards, collecting fisheries data and reducing the human impact on the marine environment. The fund was used to help Member States check that fishers, fish farmers and maritime communities correctly applied the relevant EU rules. The funds were also available for projects encouraging cross-border cooperation in maritime domains such as spatial planning and surveillance.

Although the 2014–2020 programming period is over, beneficiaries may continue to incur expenditure for subsequent reimbursement by Member States until 31 December 2023. The Commission may accept payment claims from Member States until mid 2024.

EMFF contribution – 2014-2020 programming period – Per priority
(in thousand EUR and percentage of total)

NB: Not relevant for LU.
Source: Launchpad (cutoff: 31 December 2020).