Call to action for the EU countries: 3 steps to restore our seas by 2020

Despite the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008), most EU countries are a long way off in achieving their targets to protect and restore our seas to healthy status by 2020. The lack of progress is still in many areas such as overfishing, land-made pollution (plastics and contaminants) and marine protected areas (less than 1%).

We, both governments and citizens, have two years left to reach the aim and therefore a concrete and urgent action is needed. CCB has contributed to a joint proposal – led by Seas at Risk and in collaboration with the Mediterranean Information Office for the Environment and the Black Sea NGO Network – consisting of 3 key recommendations for EU Member States , urging them to respect their commitments:

1) End overfishing by:

Following scientific advice and setting fishing limits below the maximum sustainable yield exploitation rate.

2) Eliminate pollution by:

Phasing out the input of waste into the sea as part of the transition towards a truly circular economy;
Using the Precautionary Principle for the handling of all chemical and chemical-based products in society;
Increasing financial support for sustainable agriculture, such as ecological recycling agriculture and organic farming, as a starting point to tackle eutrophication;
Protecting marine animals from noise pollution from ships and other sea-based activities;
Undertaking prevention, eradication, control or management of invasive alien species, taking into account climate change/environmental changes.

3) Halt biodiversity loss by:

Banning high-impact human activities in Marine Protected Areas (including fisheries), unless they have no significant impact on marine ecosystems;
Protecting species at the top of the foodweb, such as rays and sharks.

Moreover, 172,120 concerned citizens have signed the “Save EU seas by 2020” petition that was delivered on the 10 ^th of April during the EU Informal Environmental Council meeting by Seas at Risk, Our Fish and WeMove.EU.

CCB and the NGOs coalition strongly believe that the fulfilment and the implementation of these recommendations will help to restore our seas and achieve all the MSFD targets by 2020 . Failure is not an option.

CCB is looking for a Network Officer to join our team at the CCB International Secretariat

By CCB • April 9, 2025

Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.

Attacks on NGOs: 570+ Organisations Join Forces to Defend Civil Society

By CCB • April 7, 2025

European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.