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EU
ministers have reached a provisional deal to reshape the Common Fisheries
Policy, long blamed for overfishing.
The deal
has been hailed by the UK environment ministry Defra but criticised by the EU
fisheries commissioner and environmentalists.
A
Commission source told BBC News the new funding arrangements would continue to
promote overfishing.
He said
measures to support selective nets that avoided discards would be outweighed by
funds for bigger engines.
The deal
took away with one hand but gave with the other, the source said.
Under
current arrangements EU funding has increased the capacity of fleets and led to
widespread over-exploitation of fish stocks.
The new
plan is to help fleets switch to more sustainable fishing. It is part of the 10-year
reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The reform
aims to eradicate "discards" - the practice of dumping tonnes of
perfectly good fish back into the sea - dead - in order to meet quota targets.
But EU
Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki says the ministers' deal is weaker than
the Commission wanted.
Greenpeace
environmentalists say ministers have sold out to the economic interests of the
industrial fishing sector by also agreeing to continue subsidies for the
modernisation of vessels and their engines, which will increase capacity rather
than reducing it.
Greenpeace
believe the majority of the funds will still be taken by large fishing
companies to increase capacity through new boats and engines.
The group's
EU fisheries policy director Saskia Richartz said "there is already not
enough fish for all the boats out there, so it makes no sense at all for
governments to continue throwing subsidies at the EU's oversized fleet.
"Wasting
taxpayers' money on what causes the problem in the first place is ridiculous -
it is like paying someone to rob you."
UK
government upbeat
The size of
the European Maritime Fisheries Fund (EMFF) is yet to be decided in EU budget
talks for the next financial period, 2014-2020.
The UK
Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon said: "I am delighted that the Council
has agreed to allocate the vast majority of the new EU funding stream towards
implementing CFP reform.
"The
priority for me has always been to make the changes - that will be so vital for
a reformed Common Fisheries [Policy] - a reality, and this outcome signifies a
major step towards that vision. We are moving ever closer to the UK goal of
being able to create healthy fish stocks, a prosperous fishing industry and a
healthy marine environment."
The
original Commission proposal will be reviewed next by the European Parliament
and may be further amended before becoming law.
Roberto
Ferrigno from the green group WWF said EU governments "are keeping to
business-as-usual by using taxpayers' money to subsidise a spate of
destructive, unrealistic and unjustified fishing and aquaculture activities.
"EMFF
funds should instead support measures aimed at improving data collection and
scientific knowledge of fish stocks, promoting the dissemination and adoption
of selective fishing gears; and ultimately improving the state of fish stocks,
the well-being of coastal communities and the fishing industry."
Follow
Roger on Twitter @rogerharrabin
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