The European Council of Fisheries Ministers reached an agreement last month on how to distribute funds from the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), which is expected to be ready before the end of the year. How much it will benefit Spain, however, is anyone’s guess, and early reactions remain mixed.
The EMFF is the new fund proposed for the E.U. maritime and fisheries policies between 2014 and 2020. This fund, with a budget of EUR 6.4 billion (USD 8.5 billion) will be aimed at helping fishermen to move to sustainable fishing and coastal communities to diversify their economies.
European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Maria Damanaki said the exact amount to be allocated to every member state had not been discussed yet.
“We will have specific criteria regarding the distribution of funds to the member states and the way the money will be spent,” Damanaki said. “The parliament is going to give its opinion and then, we will conclude the agreement.”
Of the fund’s total budget, the Spanish Ministry of Fisheries has confirmed that the commission will keep EUR 870 million (USD 1.2 billion), in order to directly manage the implementation of the new common fisheries policy and integrated maritime policy. The remaining EUR 5.5 billion (USD 7.3 billion) will be distributed to the member states. The main purpose, which has been allocated EUR 4.385 billion (USD 5.828 billion), will be sustainable development of fishing and aquaculture.
Both the central government and the Galician authorities — who have the most representative fleet in the country — have reacted very positively to this agreement on the distribution criteria.
Regarding the Brussels agreement, Galician Regional Fisheries Minister Rosa Quintana said “in fact, all the agreed distribution criteria are in line with the social and economic criteria we have been supporting,” since factors such as employment, productivity and size of the fleet have been taken into account.
“We think that Spain, and above all Galicia, will benefit very much from this distribution,” she said.
Spanish Fisheries Minister, Miguel Arias Cañete, defined the agreed criteria as “balanced” and thinks that Spain could receive between 20 and 22 percent of the grants.
Javier Touza, president of Vigo’s Cooperative of Shipowners (ARVI), is more cautious. As he explained to SeafoodSource, he cannot evaluate the new fund yet, since no one knows who is getting what.
ARVI’s president also noted the current European grants for fishing are essentially allocated to scrapping and temporary decommissioning of fishing activities, followed by investments on board fishing vessels.
In the new fund, “regarding investments on board fishing vessels, the grantable concepts are much more limited,” Touza said. The continuity of grants for scrapping and temporary decommissioning, he added, has still to be decided.
“For that reason, we can run the risk of practically losing grants for extractive fishing, since they were already very limited to the two concepts (scrapping and decommissioning) that encourage the abandon of the fishing activity,” he said.
