Brussels, 25/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - It comes as no surprise that most EU countries gave their support on Tuesday 25 September to maintaining certain aid for modernising fishing vessels, as part of Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform. European fisheries ministers discussed the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for 2014-2020 but could not agree on the need to maintain aid for scrapping ships. France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria and Malta have expressed strong support for this aid to the EU fishing fleet, while other countries, such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Austria and the Czech Republic, oppose it. The Commission is proposing to get rid of this aid. The Cypriot presidency is hoping to bring the Council to a general partial orientation on this EMFF dossier during the October meeting in Luxembourg.
During the debate, Sweden opposed aid for scrapping ships, as well aid for engine replacement. Sweden is in favour of fishing gear selection and innovation. Denmark has criticised aid for fishing boat scrapping, as well as aid for the temporary halting of fishing activities and aid for ship engine modification. If there is to be aid for scrapping fishing vessels, it should target overcapacity segments, explained Denmark. Portugal defended these measures for modernising the fishing fleet but without increasing fishing effort (fishing gear selectivity, aid for temporarily halting fishing etc.).
France appealed for keeping modernisation aid. The French minister said that aid was necessary for inventing the fishing boats of the future and providing fishermen with the resources for maintaining fishing catches in the perspective of ending discards. According to the minister, it is also necessary to guarantee safety for fishermen and accompanying investment in innovation and fishing gear selection, in addition to improving fishing boat engine efficiency. France has also requested that aid be maintained for engine replacement and fishing fleet updates but without any additional fishing capacity. France has ultimately requested the right to maintain aid to the fishing fleet and to temporarily halting fishing activities. France admitted that any encroachment into Maximum Sustained Yields (MSY) would require a reduction in the overcapacity of certain sectors.
The Spanish minister said that aid for permanent or temporary halts on fishing are useful if the measures are meticulously planned. He called for measures to improve the safety of seafarers and the quality of products, as well as aid for engine replacement, on the condition that this did not require any additional fishing effort.
Latvia defended modernisation aid and engine replacement, as well support for boosting investment, as a means of developing a competitive fishing fleet and reducing its environmental impact. It also thought that there should be support for processed fishing products. Poland also supports different kinds of aid (ship modernisation, engine replacement etc.).
The United Kingdom believes that the fund should be used to implement CFP reform. It believes that certain measures should be targeted (selection, data gathering, and protecting resources). Aid for scrapping fishing boats had not achieved its objectives with regard to reducing overcapacity, pointed out the British delegation. The United Kingdom is open to the idea of aid for engine replacement if it had a positive environmental impact.
Ireland considers that fishing industry restructuring should be eligible for EMFF aid. It also defends programmes for cutting back the fleet and modernisation, in an effort to reduce energy consumption, improve safety on ship and prevent discards.
Belgium agreed to modernisation aid but considers that aid for temporary halts in fishing is expensive.
Germany considers that it is necessary to ensure that public aid does not occur in areas where there is aid to fishing fleets. Lithuania has called for additional measures to update the fishing fleets (including engine changes) but does not believe that this should lead to increased capacity.
Austria disagreed with aid for scrapping fishing boats, as did the Netherlands, which also criticised aid for engine changes. The Netherlands considers that these old instruments are expensive and have not provided any added value. Finland agrees with aid for replacing engines and support for small boats. The European Commissioner for fisheries, Maria Damanaki summed up the situation by saying that she thought she understood that the majority of states did not want to continue with this measure in the future or at least that there was not a very clear majority in favour for scrapping fishing boats ad vitam aeternam. A majority of countries has given its support to modernisation aid, which was already included in the proposal on improving the safety of fishermen and improving fishing gear selection, pointed out the Commissioner. She concluded that they needed to examine the request for aid for new engines.
A majority of countries asked for greater flexibility in the transfer between different sections in the EMFF within the perspective of shared responsibility, whilst ensuring that there were minimum levels of funding for gathering and processing data. The EMFF is expected to have an envelope of €6.5 billion for the 2014-2020 period. (LC/trans/fl)