On Wednesday 12 April, the NGO Our Fish called on all EU Member States, especially Spain, France and Germany, to support the introduction of a fuel tax on the fishing industry as part of the revision of the EU Energy Taxation Directive.
Indeed, a report financed by this organisation shows that by reducing fuel subsidies, the EU could have generated between €653 million and €1.4 billion in annual revenue, and “used it to pay the salaries of twenty thousand fishers or fund over six thousand energy reduction and decarbonisation projects”.
The study, ‘Better Use of Public Money: the End of Fuel Subsidies for the EU Fishing Industry’, commissioned by Our Fish and written by independent researchers, explains how EU Member States could finance a more environmentally sustainable, socially equitable and resilient fishing industry by removing fuel tax subsidies, while achieving good economic results.
The report includes case studies for France, Spain and Germany and shows that between 2010 and 2020, the EU fishing fleet was exempted from paying up to €15.7 billion in fuel taxes.
Link to the study: https://aeur.eu/f/6a3 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)