Brussels, 01/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - France has finalised its plans for allocating European aid to the fishing sector and is preparing to submit them to the European Commission, the French government announced on Tuesday 31 March.
After much debate, “the state and the regions have approved the proposed French operational programme, which will be submitted to the European Commission in the coming days”, said the Department for Fisheries and Association of the Regions of France (ARF) in a press release.
The government, in association with the regions, will then begin discussions with the Commission to obtain “official approval as quickly as possible, thereby allowing accompanying measures to be put in place for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors”. France was granted €558 million for the period from 2014 to 2020 from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), the financial instrument of the new common fisheries policy (CFP), which came into effect on 1 January 2015. Some €370 million of the French envelope has to be devoted to the sustainable development of fishing and aquaculture. (Lionel Changeur)