Letter sent by 40 NGOs to:
Mr. Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries European Commission
Ms. Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Trade European Commission
In a letter submitted today (18 September 2018) to Karmenu Vella and Cecilia Malmström, 40 environmental organisations call for the European Commission to uphold the current State Aid Guidelines to the fisheries sector and prevent subsidies for the construction of new fishing vessels in the EU’s outermost regions.
The European Commission is currently planning a revision of the State Aid Guidelines that will grant subsidies to the fishing sector for the construction of new vessels. The current ban against these types of subsidies has existed in the EU since 2004 and was maintained during the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy in 2014 due to the detrimental effects additional vessels have on the marine environment.
If adopted, these subsidies would undermine the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to end overfishing, go against the objectives of the European Fisheries and Maritime Fund (EMFF) which bans subsidies for vessel construction, and send the wrong political signal from the EU to political leaders around the world.
Download: Letter to Vella and Malmstrom on fishing subsidies