European Parliament supports fisheries aid

European Parliament supports fisheries aid

EUobserver.com

12th March 2003

STRUAN STEVENSON - UK Conservative MEP and chairman of the
Parliament's fisheries committee said the vote was a significant victory
in the fight to secure a fair and just compensation package for the
beleaguered white fish sector.

(Photo: EP)

The European Parliament in Strasbourg gave unanimous backing on Wednesday to a 150 million euro emergency compensation fund for European fishermen who have been devastated by the recent cutbacks in the white fish sector.

The proposal would allocate 50 million euro to transitional aid for forced tie-up schemes this year and a further 150 million euro next year for golden handshakes, early retirement and retraining grants.

The vote was described by Conservative MEP and chairman of the Parliament's fisheries committee, Struan Stevenson, as "a significant victory in our fight to secure a fair and just compensation package for our beleaguered white fish sector."

He said it sent a powerful signal from the European Parliament to the European Commission and EU fisheries ministers who must now make the final decision to approve the fund.

Long way to final go-ahead

The request for more EU cash still faces a long struggle to gain the final go-ahead. Details about how the fund would be divided between member states and when the money would eventually end up in fishermen's pockets have yet to be decided.

Following yesterday's vote, the European Parliament's Budgets Committee will examine in more detail which part of the EU's annual 100 billion euro budget the aid could come from.

The Parliament's definitive proposal would then have to be approved by the EU's 15 national fisheries ministers before the fund could be set up. MEPs asked the ministers yesterday to take their final decision by June.

Long term recovery plan

The vote in the European Parliament follows news this week that a new long term recovery plan for cod and hake in the North Sea is unlikely to come into force until 1 January 2004.

This leaves fishermen with the prospect of costly emergency cutbacks in quotas and days at sea continuing for six months longer than planned.

The European Commission in Brussels made a commitment this week to soften the emergency measures and will publish the revised measures some time over the next few weeks.

Written by Nicola Smith
Edited by Lisbeth Kirk

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