Suing the government

An alliance of environmental organizations is bringing legal action against the German Environment Ministry over fishing in protected areas of the Baltic and North Seas, which they say is having a devastating impact on marine wildlife.

"This is a last resort," WWF's Britta König told DW. "These are incredibly important areas for marine biodiversity - that's why they have been designated as protected areas."

The 10 sites in question were designated for protection in 2007 under the EU's Natura 2000 scheme, but environmental organizations say the government has failed to put measures in place to protect wildlife there.

"We have been working on this issue for years and no progress has been made. The government has an obligation under EU law," König said.

Greenpeace, WWF, BUND, NABU, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation and the Deutschen Naturschutzring (DNR) said a deadlock between government agencies over legal processes to restrict harmful fishing practices had resulted in a situation where "marine protection in Germany exists only on paper."

'Virtually unregulated'

The environmental organizations say porpoises and sea birds as well as valuable sandbanks and reef habitats are under threat from fishing practices including the use of entangling nets and bottom-contact nets such as gill nets.

"The gill nets act as deadly traps for porpoises," König said, adding that a key population at one of the protected sites now stands at 450 individuals.

The alliance says that "virtually unregulated" human use of these key sites of biodiversity continues, including the extraction of sand and gravel and construction of wind turbines. Seaduck numbers in the Baltic, for example, have fallen by 60 percent since 1995.

The Federal Nature Conservation Agency (BfN) carried out impact assessments and in 2011 published recommendations for the protection of the sites that would limit the harmful fishing practices. But the process has stalled since then.

Any such changes to fishing regulations must be approved by the European Union in accordance with the Common European Fisheries Policy, but so far a proposal has yet to be submitted at the European level.

The BfN told DW that "the required accordance between [Germany's Federal Environment Ministry and the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture] has yet to be achieved."

Blame game

Stephan Lutter, WWF's international marine policy director, said the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL), which is responsible for submitting a formal proposal to the European Commission, was to blame for the impasse.

"The tricky thing is that the environment ministry is actually very interested in moving forward on the protection of these marine Natura 2000 sites, and their species and habitats," Lutter told DW. "The blockade is on the agriculture ministry's side."

Though Lutter's organization does not blame the environment ministry, they must bring the case against them formally.

A spokesperson for Germany's agriculture ministry told DW that any claims it was holding up the process were "incomprehensible."

"Negotiations between the two federal departments with respect to these fishery regulations are currently underway, with the aim of reaching an agreement within a reasonable time," the spokesperson said.

A German problem

But environmentalists say that, with more than seven years having lapsed since the areas were designated for protection, the agreement is well overdue.

"Other member states have successfully implemented the European regulations, or they are in the process of doing so," Lutter said. "This is a German problem."

The case has been lodged with the Administrative Court in Cologne, but Lutter said he expected the court to pass it directly on to the European Court of Justice to "speed up the process of clarification."

The Environment Ministry told DW that it could not comment on the legal action as it did not yet know the application's contents but, "the responsibilities both for the protection of marine wildlife and the fishing industry lie with the EU."