Commercial fishing industry representative group Europêche and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) have called on European officials and national governments to extend fuel aid for the bloc’s fishers, ensuring they can continue operating amid elevated fuel prices.
“The persisting high costs of fuel represent a concrete risk to employment and coastal communities. If nothing is done to counter these high fuel costs, fishers will be left without a reliable source of income for fishers and stable jobs,” ETF Fisheries Section Chair Juan Manuel Trujillo said in a release.
Fuel prices have remained high worldwide since the beginning of the U.S. war on Iran, in which U.S. hostilities led to Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, the main thoroughfare for oil exiting the Persian Gulf.
Fuel is one of the biggest operating costs for commercial fishers, and the crisis has had a major impact on fleets, with many fishers considering staying tied to the dock or reducing fishing efforts instead of heading out to sea for diminishing profits.
“As in many European fisheries, fishers' remuneration is directly linked to the net revenue generated by each fishing trip. Rising fuel costs make fishers face a direct and drastic reduction in their take-home income, worsening remuneration conditions and threatening job retention in coastal communities in a situation of already low attractiveness of the sector,” ETF and Europêche said in a joint release.
To support fishers and offset higher fuel costs, European regulators have authorized member states to reimburse commercial fishing and aquaculture businesses.
In April 2026, the European Commission adopted the Middle East Crisis Temporary State Aid Framework (METSAF), which enables governments to provide aid to businesses in the agriculture, fisheries, and transport sectors. Under METSAF, member states can provide financial aid equivalent to 70 percent of the extra costs from fuel price increases or a flat rate of EUR 50,000 (USD 56,885) per applicant.
“The recent spikes in energy prices require an immediate response,” European Commission Executive Vice President for Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition Teresa Ribera said in April. “The METSAF allows for easily applicable solutions that will sustain the continuous development of core E.U. sectors such as agriculture, fishery, and transport by cushioning the effects of the crisis.”
Since then, the European Commission has approved aid plans proposed by Spain, France, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Malta, and Sweden for their fisheries.
METSAF, however, is set to expire on 31 December, despite the ongoing conflict in Iran, and many of the national schemes are set to expire sooner. In response, ETF and Europêche have sent a letter to the European Commission calling for the aid deadline to be extended. Specifically, they’ve asked regulators to enable governments to rapidly extend existing approved schemes.
“The fishing sector cannot absorb indefinitely the exceptional increase in fuel costs. We urge the Commission to extend the temporary framework and ensure that support is not interrupted while the crisis continues,” Europêche President Javier Garat said in a release.
Other adjustments requested by the two organizations include switching compensation ceilings to be set per vessel instead of by company.
“The framework should maintain the possibility to compensate verified additional fuel costs without an overall cap and to apply simplified aid ceilings per vessel, rather than per company. Additional E.U. funding and rapid reprogramming of available resources will also be necessary in Member States, where existing funds have already been committed or exhausted,” the groups said in a statement.
