Science at Sea: The Role of Scientific Evidence in EU Marine Policy Debates

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of ocean politics as a crucial focus across multiple political arenas. This heightened attention stems from two parallel developments: mounting concerns over marine ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss on the one hand, and intensifying economic interests in maritime resources on the other. A key goal of the most recent initiatives is to enhance marine science production, regarded as essential to allow for science-based policymaking, and foster marine spatial planning (e.g. UN Decade for Ocean Science). Indeed, environmental policies in general, and marine policies in particular are characterized by high complexity and uncertainty (Daviter 2015; De Santo et al. 2019), making them deeply dependent on scientific advice in the framing of the issues and the definition of the potential solutions (Machin, 2020; Wesselink et al., 2013). While the demand for and use of scientific expertise is intensifying across all policy fields (Christensen & Lægreid, 2022), this trend is particularly pronounced in environmental politics (Pellizzoni, 2011). Paradoxically, the increasing reliance on science—often referred to as the "scientization" of policymaking—frequently coincides with the politicization of science (Weingart, 1999), particularly in contexts of complexity and uncertainty (Pellizzoni, 2011). Although this paradox has been studied in climate politics, the literature researching other policy areas seems scarce. In that context, this paper looks at different policy debates in the EU Parliament, focusing on the use of science by the members of the fisheries committee (PECH) during the 9th legislature (data includes committee debates, amendments and plenary speeches). More precisely, it looks at how MEPs articulate marine science (and scientific uncertainty) in their advocacy in order to capture the scientization and science politicization dynamics at play. As the selected policy cases embody the abovementioned tension between EU’s economic and environmental objectives, this research also aims at analyzing how political actors use scientific evidence instrumentally to legitimate their priorities for the governance of EU seas.