The number of fishing enterprises in the EU fell from 150,000 in 2014 to about 120,000 today.

Omissions

• Eurostat's closest official metric to 'Fischbetriebe' (fishing enterprises) is the number of fishing vessels: 68,863 active catching vessels in the EU in 2024, far below the ~120,000 claimed. Since every fishing enterprise operates at least one vessel, the enterprise count cannot exceed the vessel count.
• The 2014 baseline of 150,000 fishing enterprises could not be verified: no Eurostat or EU source lists 150,000 fishing enterprises in the EU in 2014; the EU fleet has been far below that number in recent decades (roughly 80,000–90,000 vessels in the 2010s, per Eurostat fleet series).
• Even if aquaculture and processing enterprises were added to capture-fleet enterprises, the total would remain below 120,000 (EU aquaculture enterprises are estimated at ~14,000–15,000 by STECF).
• The claimed figures (150,000 → 120,000) resemble employment levels in the EU fishing fleet rather than enterprise counts, suggesting a possible conflation of fishers/employees with enterprises; employment data for the exact period could not be retrieved within the search limit.
• The Eurostat news article used (published 2026-02-16) post-dates the session date but contains 2024 reference-period data, which the MEP could have known; the Statistics Explained page is a continuously updated living document.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostat — Statistics Explained: Fisheries - catches and landingsThe EU fishing fleet continues to shrink. The number of active vessels in the EU was 68 863 in 2024. These vessels had a combined capacity of 1.24 million gross tonnes.
• PrimaryEurostat — News article: Key figures on food chain – EU's fishing fleetIn 2024, the EU's fishing fleet counted 68 863 catching vessels, with a gross tonnage (a measure of fish-holding capacity) of 1.2 million tonnes.