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At the EU level, the principal legislation on fisheries is Council Regulation (EC) No. 2371/2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fishery resources under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The Regulation sets out the legal basis for the CFP and provides for measures covering all areas relating to commercial fishing, including: conservation and management; environmental impact; conditions of access; fleet capacity; control; aquaculture; the common organization of the markets; and international relations. Fisheries policy has changed significantly over the past few years and reform is continuing with increased emphasis on sustainability through long-term management, enforcement of rules, and inputs from stakeholders, including scientific advice.

Over fishing remains a serious problem for the EU as total allowable catches have regularly exceeded sustainable limits. However, for some time now the EU has been increasing the emphasis on long-term planning and more reform of the Common Fisheries Policy should take place this year

Overfishing continues to be a major problem facing EU fishing with the majority of commercial fish stocks in EU waters giving cause for concern. In 2007, 29 out of 33 of Europe's most important commercial fish species; were over- fished while "decisions on catch levels remain dominated by short-term thinking, and the catching capacity of the European Fleet remains more than twice what is needed to harvest [the EU's] fish stocks sustainably. "

In preparing proposals for the Council and European Parliament, the Commission may consult the Advisory Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture which was set up in 1971 to represent the main stakeholders in the fisheries sector, including representatives for the catch sector, aquaculture producers, processing and trading enterprises, as well as consumers and environmentalists.

According to the Commission, its proposals to the Council on TACs (Total allowable catch) and quotas are based on advice from the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee (which takes into account advice from other sources, including the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea), and input from stakeholders (including the RACs). Based on the Commission's proposals, the Council sets TACs for each species each year (every two years for deep sea species) which are distributed among the member States which in turn allocate quotas to fishing vessels. Control and enforcement are carried out by the member States and include a satellite-based vessel monitoring system (VMS) and traceability systems covering catch from the vessel to the retailer. Sanctions for not complying with quotas or other rules may be applied at both the member State and fishing -vessel level. At the member State level, sanctions for not complying with the CFP include reduced financial aid. Since 1 January 2012, a penalty-point system applies to fishing vessels for serious offences which may result in the withdrawal of fishing permits.

Under Regulation (EU) No. 1026/2012 the Commission can adopt measures against a third country which it has identified as allowing non- sustainable fishing of a fishing stock it shares with the EU. Allowing non- sustainable fishing is defined as failure to cooperate in management of the shared stock "in full compliance" with international law, and failing to adopt fishery -management measures or adopting such measures in a manner that could lead the stock to an unsustainable state, and without due regard for other countries and the EU. The measures that may be taken include: imposing quantitative restrictions on imports of fish from the stock, on imports of species associated with the stock, on imports of products made of or containing the stock or species associated with it; and other restrictions. Before taking such measures, the third country would be notified and it then has one month to respond and "remedy the situation".

The CFP (Common Fisheries Policy) also includes a range of other restrictions to fishing effort and gear that may be used. These include technical measures that may be incorporated into long-term plans, such as minimum landing sizes, minimum mesh sizes, closed areas and seasons, by-catch limits, and permitted fishing gear. The measures and the stocks they apply to are set out in a number of regulations, with several more proposals before the European Parliament and Council, including proposals for regulation:
- on the conservation of fishery through technical measures in the Baltic Sea, the Belts and the Sound ;
- establishing specific conditions to fishing for deep-sea stocks in the North-East Atlantic and provisions for fishing in international waters of the North-East Atlantic; and
- concerning the conservation of fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms.

The EU participates in six tuna regional fishing management organizations (RFMOs) (including the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme (AIDCP) which is a sister organisation to IATTC) and 9 non-tuna RFMOs. The EU is also a member of two advisory RFOs: the Western Central Atlantic Fisheries Commission (WECAFC) and the Fisheries Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF) (Table 4.14). The EU is also an active participant in multilateral negotiations on Law of the Sea and Fisheries in global fora, such as the UN and FAO, and other organizations dealing with fishing, such as the OECD. The Communication on the external dimension of the CFP, as endorsed by the European Parliament and the Council, advocates the fight against IUU, reducing overcapacity, reinforcing compliance with management measures adopted by RFMOs and the use of the best scientific evidence available to underpin their decisions.

Environmental services constitute an important economic sector for the EU as their two main susbsectors (water collection treatment and supply on the one hand, and sewerage, waste management, and remediation on the other hand) employed 1,037,000 persons in 2007 and accounted for a gross value added of €100.5 billion (€29.6 billion for water, €69.8 billion for the remainder), i.e. an approximate turnover of €250 billion.

At a European-wide level, however, detailed statistics of the various subsegments of environmental services are available and appear in Table 4.27, which shows that, depending of the subsector concerned, the EU accounts for approximately 20% to 25% of the global environmental services market.