Executive Summary

The eighth edition of the EU Blue Economy Report, presented in a new layout, provides a thorough overview of the scale and breadth of the Blue Economy within the European Union (EU). Its primary aim is to offer guidance to policymakers and stakeholders in fostering the growth of ocean-based and maritime-related markets and the sustainable use of coastal and marine resources. The Blue Economy sectors play an increasingly important role in achieving the European Commission’s key priorities to make the EU more competitive, sustainable, resilient and secure. By providing economic insights into the opportunities that emerge from the energy and digital transition, the Report also aims to attract investment in the Blue Economy sectors.

This new edition of the Report provides the reader with an analysis of the socio-economic performance, trends and drivers of the Blue Economy sectors. For the sectors denominated Marine living resources (fisheries and aquaculture), Marine non-living resources (marine extractive industry), Marine renewable energy (offshore wind), Port activities, Shipbuilding and repair, Maritime transport and Coastal tourism, the comprehensive analysis is based on data collected by the Commission from Member States via the European Statistical System. Specifically, fisheries and aquaculture socio-economic data originate from the EU Data Collection Framework (DCF). Data for the other sectors come from Eurostat Structural Business Statistics (SBS) and &PRODuction COMmunautaire (PRODCOM) datasets, National Accounts and Tourism statistics, as well as few selected proprietary databases.

Compared to previous editions, this Report deepens and broadens the scope of its analyses by incorporating Blue biotechnology, retail of seafood in non-specialised shops, seafood consumption outside households, and Desalination industries into the above-mentioned Blue Economy sectors. Furthermore, for the first time in this edition, the Report includes estimations of the sectoral performance for the current year -2 using Eurostat’s preliminary socio-economic indicators data for 2023, thereby reducing the time lag by a year.

In addition, the Report provides complementary qualitative information about the growing importance and evolution of other Blue Economy sectors for which comparable socio-economic statistics at EU level are lacking. This refers to the production of ocean renewable energy from sources other than offshore wind – that is, tidal, wave, salinity gradient, floating photovoltaic, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). These sectors have the potential to make a significant contribution to economic growth, employment creation, and sustainability transition in the EU. Our description of these economic sectors is based on information collected from various sources available in the public domain.

Lastly, this year’s edition also includes special sections on the energy transition in the EU maritime transport and fishing fleet, and on the role and potential of nature-based solutions against the impacts of climate change in EU coastal areas.

Complementing the content of this Report, the online EU Blue Economy Observatory provides more timely and in-depth updates of relevant Blue Economy developments per economic sector and Member State. Throughout the year, additional analyses will be regularly published on the Observatory, together with information about relevant events, news and funding opportunities. Interactive dashboards are also available on the Observatory, facilitating access to the most recent Blue Economy data as they become available.

According to the official figures for 2022, the established sectors of the EU Blue Economy directly employed close to 4.82 million people, generated about €890.6 billion in turnover and €250.7 billion in gross value added (GVA) (Table 1). Furthermore, the estimates suggest that the EU Blue Economy sectors continued to grow in 2023, contributing €263 billion to the EU GVA and employing 4.88 million persons. The detailed methodology underpinning these analyses can be downloaded from the EU Blue Economy Observatory.

Table 1 EU Blue Economy established sectors, main indicators, 2022

Indicator	EU Blue Economy 2022
Turnover	€890.6 billion
Gross value added	€250.7 billion
Gross surplus	€120.6 billion
Employment	4.82 million
Net investment in tangible goods	€8.8 billion
Net investment ratio	3.5%
Average annual salary	€27 016

These figures offer an underestimated picture of the full socio-economic value of the EU Blue Economy, as they refer to seven sectors for which accurate and comparable data are available at EU level, namely: Marine living resources, Marine non-living resources, Marine renewable energy, Port activities, Shipbuilding and repair, Maritime transport and Coastal tourism. Besides these sectors, the Blue Economy encompasses other marine-based and marine-related activities, including emerging and innovative sectors, for which a comprehensive analysis is more challenging due to the paucity of data. The inclusion of all economic activities with a maritime component, together with indirect and induced effects alongside the various supply chains, would significantly increase the above-mentioned figures.

Among the various sectors, there are several noteworthy results in this edition. The Coastal tourism sector, which remains the biggest Blue Economy sector, showed a full recovery in 2022 in terms of GVA and turnover, after a 64% and 59% decrease, respectively, in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the coastal tourism sector represented 53% of total EU Blue Economy’s employment and 33% of its total GVA. The relative size of this sector and its sensitivity to economic conditions and shocks makes the Blue Economy growing and shrinking faster than the overall EU economy. Within Marine renewable energy, the EU offshore wind energy sector remains on its fast-growth trajectory, with its GVA increasing by 42% compared to 2021 to €5.3 billion in 2022. This growth boosted the sector’s profits, which reached €4.1 billion in 2022, representing a 56% increase from 2021. With this performance, offshore wind is one the fastest growing sectors in the EU economy as a whole.

Within the EU-27, the four largest Member States (Germany, France, Italy, and Spain) are also the biggest contributors to the EU Blue Economy’s socio-economic performance. Together, they account for 60% of the entire EU Blue Economy’s GVA and 52% of its employment. Greece is the second largest provider of Blue Economy jobs in the EU, employing 12.4% of its workforce, after Spain (20%). The Blue Economy’s contribution to national economies and employment varies significantly across EU countries, ranging from 7.3% in Croatia to 0.2% in landlocked Austria and Luxembourg.

The further sustainable development of the EU Blue Economy is becoming increasingly relevant, in light of the political priorities of the new Commission established in December 2024. The Blue Economy sectors can make a significant contribution to supporting economic growth and job creation, enhancing Europe’s competitiveness, rebuilding the EU’s defence industry, strengthening strategic autonomy, supplying clean and affordable energy, and ensuring access to healthy aquatic foods, amongst other. This also generates potential for new business opportunities and further advance the sustainability transition of all EU’s established and emerging Blue Economy sectors, for example in the area of clean technologies, green port infrastructure, shipbuilding and repair and marine robotics. In this context, the European Ocean Pact will be the enabling framework to materialise these ambitions.

Furthermore, given the increasing impact of climate change on coastal regions, the Blue Economy can contribute to speeding up adaptation and strengthening the resilience of coastal communities. Currently, already approximately 72 000 people in the EU are affected by coastal flooding each year. Without an increase in current levels of coastal protection, annual damages are projected to escalate to between €137 billion and €814 billion by 2100, depending on alternative emissions and mitigation scenarios. Nature-based solutions (NBSs) provide opportunities to strengthen coastal protection and reduce the risks of flooding and coastal erosion. Their benefits are estimated to outweigh the costs by a factor of more than 3.5.