Brussels, 01/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - According to a study published on Wednesday 31 March by the Pew Environment Group NGO and the British consultancy, Poseidon, European subsidies paid between 2000-06 partly encouraged overfishing and maintain excessive fleet overcapacity and thus exerted pressure on stocks. According to the European Commission, this study does not provide anything new because it focuses on the former aid programme in ten EU member states and on 93% of the €4.9 billion paid under the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) between 2000-06 (46% of funds for Spain, 11% to Italy and 9% to France).
In a press statement, Tim Huntington a consultant at Poseidon said that, “fisheries subsidies and the overfishing of valuable fish stocks are clearly connected”. Although, around 54% of total FIFG funding was under measures that are identified as having a neutral or unclear impact on fishing capacity, with 29% under negative measures (vessel construction and modernisation) and just 17% under positive measures (scrapping and temporary cessation of fishing activities). The countries where the proportion of this aid is most negative (new boats, modernisation of embarkations) are Spain, France, Portugal and Germany.
The study said that money went more towards modernising and building vessels of over 24 metres in length rather than scrap them, while the opposite was the case for artisanal coastal fishing.
FIFG support for the construction of around 3,000 vessels and the modernisation of nearly 8,000 vessels, compared to the scrapping of 6,000 vessels (a large proportion of which were small inshore vessels from Greece and Spain), is expected to have resulted in a net increase in fishing capacity.
The authors of the report explain that fishing capacity in the EU fleet was reduced by 3% in terms of gross tonnage and 7% in terms of engine power (kW) over the seven years of the programme, 2-3% annual efficiency gains through technological improvements. The European Commission defended itself from these attacks and explained that the FIFG is the old fishing assistance system that had been replaced by the European Fisheries Fund (2007-13) following the reform of 2002. The Commission also said that the 2002 reform had allowed for most problems of this kind to be resolved (subsidies for the construction of new vessels). The new European Fisheries Fund does not allow for the construction of new vessels, explained the Commission. The latter did admit, however, that the problem of fleet overcapacity still remained one of the subjects in reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). It is seek to find new ways of ensuring that subsidies are made a priority target when reducing fishing capacity. (L.C.)