Are the EU’s efforts to combat marine pollution from ships effective?

March 2025. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) published a special report entitled EU Action to Combat Pollution from Ships – Still in Troubled Waters. The report refers to the European Union’s commitments to achieving – by 2030. – zero emissions of water pollution. In its assessment, the ECA focused on pollution from ships, which is one of the largest sources of it in the seas.

In its conclusions, the European Court of Auditors indicates, among other things, that EU regulations have been adequately refined, but that there have nevertheless been weaknesses in their implementation and shortcomings in the data necessary to assess the achievement of the intended goals.

General context

Because a healthy marine ecosystem is important for maintaining biodiversity, protecting fish stocks or sequestering carbon dioxide, in 2008. The EU adopted the Marine Strategy Framework Directive for achieving or maintaining good environmental status of EU marine waters by 2020.

The EU’s 8th Environment Action Program, which came into force in 2022, set a target of moving toward zero water pollution by 2030. Subsequently, in June 2023, the European Commission presented a maritime safety package, which included legislative proposals to amend the directive on ship-source pollution and the directive on port state control. These acts were adopted in November 2024. The implementation of EU legislation, as well as those conventions to which they are parties, is the responsibility of individual member states.

Marine water quality

Marine water quality at the EU level is monitored based on 11 indicators, which are defined in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

The European Environment Agency, in a report published in 2019, indicated that 80 percent of the EU’s marine waters are pollution problem areas, and about 75 percent of them are polluted with waste.

Marine pollution from ships

Marine pollution generated by ships includes:

• abandoned, lost or otherwise lost fishing gear;
• Wrecks of various types of ships: warships, cargo ships, fishing boats, oil or chemical tankers – for example, MARE Foundation scientists estimate that at least 100 of the 8,000 to 10,000 wrecks sunk on the bottom of the Baltic Sea pose a threat due to fuel or hazardous substances within 10 nautical miles of the shoreline;
• dumped munitions – for example, the HELCOM Commission estimates that 40,000 tons of chemical weapons have been dumped in the Baltic Sea since 1946;
• plastic waste;
• various types of pollutants, such as oil, organic compounds, hazardous substances and heavy metals entering the sea as a result:
  • accidental spills or operational discharges;
  • Sewage disposal and gray water;
  • Leakage of toxic components of antifouling paints;
  • release of harmful substances when ships are dismantled or containers are lost, or from shipwrecks and sunken munitions;
  • discharge of contaminated water and wastewater from scrubbers.

ECA evaluation

The ECA’s audit covered the period from January 2014 to September 2024. The Court assessed the EU’s actions to combat marine pollution from ships. It checked whether the activities were properly planned, implemented, enforced and monitored.

As a result of its analysis, the Court came to the following conclusions:

• EU regulations have been refined, but there have been lapses in their implementation;
• The lack of data made it impossible to assess whether the intended goals were achieved;
• The European Maritime Safety Agency has developed useful tools, but nevertheless member states have not used them to their full extent;
• Many EU countries have not reached the set mandatory thresholds for the number of ships inspected;
• methods and thresholds were not complete or comparable, making monitoring and reporting difficult;
• Both the European Commission and the Member States did not have information on what results had been achieved as a result of the implementation of EU-funded projects;
• There was a lack of information on marine pollution and the amount of ship waste in the seas;
• There are some limitations in the EU’s maritime strategy for monitoring ship-source pollution, particularly in terms of being able to link data to water pollution levels;
• pollution from ships was inadequately monitored.

ECA recommendations

The European Court of Auditors recommends:

• Take additional measures to eliminate difficulties in achieving better results by EU-funded projects – due by 2026;
• Improving the operation and effectiveness of EMSA’s pollution warning tools – due by 2027;
• Improve reporting on the state of the environment in marine waters and improve monitoring of this state – due by 2027;
• Strengthening monitoring of mandatory inspections carried out by member states in accordance with EU directives – due by 2028.

More details can be found in a report posted on the European Court of Auditors website.