Anney_Lier / Shutterstock]Languages: Français | DeutschEU countries will be required to reduce the harmful impacts of fishing on sensitive species and their habitats, under a draft EU biodiversity plan seen by EURACTIV. “The Action Plan clearly states that we need to move away from destructive fisheries like bottom trawling, which is the first time the Commission is so clear about the problem, and we welcome this,” said Monica Verbeek, executive director of the marine conservation organisation Seas at Risk. “The Commission itself seems to recognise that the proposed measures will not do the trick, as they plan to assess progress in 2024 and already hint at a follow-up legislative proposal which will then conveniently be up to the next Commissioner to deal with,” Verbeek told EURACTIV, referring to the fact that the Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius will end his term in 2024