Brussels, 21/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European authorities have rejected the Regional Fund for Sustainable Fishing, passed in June of last year by the Brittany Regional Council in France. This fund, which was to be used to renew the small-scale fishing fleet, has been found to infringe European public aid rules.
MEP Alain Cadec (EPP, France) is critical of the lack of rigour shown by the Brittany Regional Council in putting in place the fund. “The region has made promises to fishermen without taking the trouble to check the legal feasibility of the plan. The Regional Fund for Sustainable Fishing is a spurious good idea”, he said. When the fund was set up, Cadec alerted the Brittany Regional Council of the need for measures of this type to comply with European rules. Fishermen have already had to repay state aid (aid for fuel) which has put them in difficulty. “All that had to be done was to ask the European Commission and this situation could have been avoided”, Cadec said. He said, too, that, as rapporteur on the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, “I am fighting for Europe to give direct support to renewing the small-scale fishing fleet”. (LC/transl.rt)