Brussels, 13/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Oceana, an international organisation which works to protect the world's oceans, has put a figure of €3.3 billion on the amount paid out in subsidies to EU fishing vessels in 2009. This is more than three times the official European Commission figure, which only includes European Fisheries Fund data. In a report published on Tuesday 13 September, Oceana calls for an end to the subsidies which are increasing fishing capacity and calculates that the capacity of the EU fleet is two to three times higher than what would be required to ensure sustainable fishing.
Oceana is critical, too, of the fact that, in 13 EU countries, subsidies to the fishing fleets in 2009 were greater than the values of the national landings of fisheries products. The Finnish and German fleets, for example, received respectively three and one and a half times more in subsidies than the value of catches landed. It was in Spain (€733.9 million), France (€361.9 million), Denmark (€307 million), the United Kingdom (€264 million) and Italy (250 million) that subsidies, totalling €1.9 billion, were highest. The Oceana report says that “more than two thirds” of all subsidies (which amount to €3.3 billion) to EU fishing fleets have the ability to enhance fishing capacity and promote overfishing.
Of this €3.3 billion total, the European Fisheries Fund contributed €1 billion in 2009. Oceana assessed public aid for fuel (tax exemptions) to be worth €1.4 billion, with €241.7 million of this in Spain, €207 million in Denmark and €115 million in France. Total subsidies to the fishing sector were equivalent to 50% of the value of the EU's total fish catch in 2009 (€6.6 billion).
Within the context of the reform of the common fisheries policy, Ocean is urging drastic changes. Maria Jose Cornax of Oceana Europe has called for public funds to be allocated to more marine protected areas, proper enforcement of fisheries management and the financing of scientific assessments. (L.C./transl.rt)